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An Engraving by Davignon, made in 1853 while Houston was in the 
United States Senate 



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THE REPUBLIC 
OF TEXAS 

A Brief History of Texas from the First 

American Colonies in 1821 to 

Annexation in 1846 

By 

CLARENCE R. WHARTON 






Published by 
C. C. YOUNG PRINTING COMPANY 

Houston, Texas 
Copyrighted 1922 by Clarence R. Wharton 



n 



3?^ 



''Give me a land where the battle's red blast 
Has flashed to the future the fame of the past. 

Give me a land that hath legends and lays, 
That tell of the memories of long vanished days, 

Yes, give me a land with a grave in each spot, 
A7id names on the graves that shall not be forgot." 

Father Ryan. 



^ ^ O X X o 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Louisiana Purchase 7 

Texas Traded for Florida.. 17 

The Colonies -— 27 

The Revolution 97 

The Republic - 169 

Annexation of Texas 215 



PREFACE 



When the Austins came in 1821 and opened the way for 
people from the States, Texas history had its real begin- 
ning. Fifteen years later San Jacinto was fought and won 
and for ten years more Texas was a Republic. Then after 
one of the greatest political battles in American history, 
it became a State. This twenty-five years is the heroic 
period of Texas history. 

When the Democrats met in convention in Baltimore in 
1844, the Whigs had nominated Henry Clay and declared 
against the annexation of Texas and ignored the acquisi- 
tion of Oregon. Powerful forces among the Democrats, led 
by Van Buren and aided by Benton, worked to commit the 
party to the same course. But the Southern leaders seized 
the machinery of the convention, overthrew Van Buren, 
and named James K. Polk, of Tennessee, and boldly de- 
clared for the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of 
Oregon. The election of Polk committed the American 
people to both propositions. The advent of Texas into the 
Union was followed not only by all the country west to 
the Pacific, but North to the present Canadian border. 
San Jacinto set the tide of Saxon supremacy toward the 
Pacific and was indeed one of the decisive battles of the 
world. 

Clarence R. Wharton. 
Houston, Texas. 
January 1, 1922. 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

The Proclamation of La Salle. 

The evolutions in History; the various changes in sove- 
reignty through which Texas passed from the primitive 
plain and wilderness to statehood, must be of interest to 
this generation. 

It was a strange theory which the European nations em- 
ployed by which each claimed portions of the Americas 
based upon exploration and discovery. 

It never seriously occurred to any of these so-called civi- 
lized nations that the Indian inhabitants who had peopled 
these continents for countless ages had any title to their 
native land, any rights which need be respected. Strange 
even to romance are the events by which the fair laud, 
which now bears the name of Texas, has passed from flag to 
flag. 

There was a three-hundred-year race among the nations 
of Europe for possessions in the New World, each country 
basing its claims upon explorations and discoveries made by 
persons flying its flag. Spanish adventurers first reached 
the mainland through the Gulf of Mexico, and Spain's title 
to the Floridas was recognized because of explorations of 
De Leon and De Soto, about fifty years after Columbus' 
first voyage. Then there was a lapse of more than one 
hundred years after De Soto, on his fruitless gold hunt, 
discovered the Mississippi River, until La Salle, the French- 
man, coming from Canada, sailed down it to the sea. 

On April 9, 1682, La Salle stood on the bank of the 
great river, surrounded by a small company of daring 
Frenchmen, and by a process verbal named and claimed 



The Proclamation of La Salle 

the country far and wide for his monarch. IMark Twain 
describes this vast real estate transaction in his ''Life on 
the Mississippi ' ' : 

''Then to the admiration of the savages, the French- 
men set up a cross Avith the arms of France on it, and 
took possession of the whole country for the King, the 
cool fashion of the time, while the priest piously conse- 
crated the robber}^ with a hymn, and they drew from 
the simple sons of the forest fealty to Louis over the 
sea. No one even smiled at this colossal irony." 

How far this verbal proclamation reached, and what 
were the boundaries of the new province, were matters 
much debated, though never settled in the centuries to 
come. 

Some said they crossed the Rockies to the northwest 
coast. 

Others that they extended east including west Florida. 

Others that they embraced all Texas down to the Rio 
Grande. 

This last claim was given much force by the fact that 
LaSalle came again to the Gulf Coast in 1685 and founded 
a colony on Matagorda Bay, and lost his life here in 
Texas. 

After his death and the failure of his Colonj^ the Span- 
iards through Mexico made feeble, futile efforts at settle- 
ments here, claiming the countr}^ as part of Mexico, but 
they succeeded little better than the French had done. 

Another hundred years rolled around and Louisiana and 
Texas were yet wild, vast and unknown. France had made 
settlements in Canada, and controlled the St. Lawrence and 
the Great Lakes. The English had colonized along the At- 
lantic seaboard, and the Spaniard yet held the Floridas, 
and all Mexico, or New Spain, as it was called. There were 



8 



The Proclamation of La Salle 

some French settlements on the ]\Iississippi, and New Or- 
leans had become a port of some importance. 

Then came the French and Indian wars in j:he middle 
of the Eighteenth Centnry, and France and England fonght 
for long bloody years over the valley of the Ohio. 

Seeing that England would win, France hurriedly handed 
Louisiana over to Spain in 1762 to keep it from falling into 
the hands of England, and, curiously enough, Napoleon 
hurriedly sold it to the United States forty years later to 
keep it out of England's hands. And the United States 
annexed Texas in 1845 to keep England from dominating 
it. After this cession to Spain in 1762, and w^hile Spain 
held Louisiana, the title to Texas was conceded to be 
Spanish, whether it be treated as part of Louisiana or 
part of Mexico. At the close of the American Kevolu- 
tion Spanish sovereignty was acknowledged over Louis- 
iana, the Floridas, Texas, Mexico, and all the lands 
around the Gulf of ]\Iexico. Spain claimed all of North 
America w^est of the Mississippi, and there was no one then 
to seriously dispute this claim. 

But while the Colonies (now become the States) did not 
then covet more land, they did set great store by the right 
to navigate the Mississippi River. They claimed the coun- 
try west to the river and south to the 31st parallel, or about 
to a line from Natchez, Miss., east, following certain ob- 
jects to the Atlantic. Since, however, the lower river and its 
entrance to the Gulf ran through Spanish territory, it was 
a matter of much moment to have for the people of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee and all the territories west of the Al- 
leghenies the right to navigate the river to its mouth and 
reach the Atlantic seaboard by way of the Gulf. 

After some years of negotiation, a treaty was concluded in 
1795 between the United States and Spain, giving us the 



Napoleon's First Effort at King Making 

right to navigate the river, and depot facilities for goods 
on the west bank of the river at New Orleans. For the time 
being this seemed all our country could want. The close 
of the eighteenth century saw England in control of Canada, 
and the United States of the country to the Spanish pos- 
sessions south and west, and Spain the nominal master of 
the greater part of North America. 

Thus far little detail had been given to boundaries, and 
fully four-fifths of all North America was uninhabited and 
more than half of it yet unexplored. Texas was little more 
than a name on a map at the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. In a feeble way Spain had exercised a nominal au- 
thority over the country for a century or more, and in an 
effort to reclaim it had built missions at various places 
where Franciscan Fathers labored to tame and save the Red 
Brother. But the Indian did not take kindly to being 
tamed and saved and the missions were failures. Some of 
them still stand after another hundred years have roll(?d 
around, the last mute evidence of Spanish sovereignty. 

Napoleon's First Effort at King Making. 

The dawn of the nineteenth century saw strange things 
transpiring throughout the world, and perhaps the strang- 
est was the case of the young islander who had come to 
France and during the Revolution made himself master of 
that bloody, turbulent country. 

Napoleon, then thirty years old, was First Consul of the 
Republic, and planned to become, as he shortly afterwards 
did, an Emperor. He had lately led victorious armies in 
Egypt and Italy, and assumed a mastery over the Italian 
cities and states. Down in Italy not far beyond the Alps 
was the old Roman City of Parma, which had withstood 



10 



Napoleon^s First Effort at King Making 

the wars of centuries and had been made a dukedom or 
Duchy by some of the Popes four hundred years before. 
In the course of the eternal conflict which had prevailed 
among the so-called great powers of Europe, this had be- 
come an appendage of the Spanish Crown, and at this time 
the Duke of Parma was the nephew and son-in-law of 
Charles IV, the Bourbon King of Spain. 

The Duke of Parma wanted to be a king, and this fact 
was related to Napoleon, who had the same ambition on a 
larger scale. And it suited the purpose of this strange, rest- 
less person to make a king out of this degenerate Bourbon 
Duke. So that it came to pass that a kingdom, warranted 
to contain not less than one million souls, was created by 
Napoleon in Northern Italy about Parma, and named Etru- 
ria, following in part the boundaries of a Roman Province 
of the same name. And the young Duke of Parma and his 
pretty little Spanish bride, the daughter of twenty kings, 
came down to Paris to apply to Bonaparte, the Republican 
First Consul, for a kingdom and a crown. Amidst festivi- 
ties and gayeties such as have often prevailed in Paris, 
Napoleon began his career as a king maker, and made this 
youthful pair King and Queen of Etruria, and bestowed 
upon them the hereditary title of Rulers of an Italian King- 
dom of one million human souls over which he had no sem- 
blance of right to rule, and yet less to bestow upon others as 
a bounty. But the Duke of Parma was happy to be a king, 
and his pretty little Spanish bride, daughter of so many 
kings, was glad to be a queen, and the young Corsican was 
glad to begin the experiment of setting up kingdoms and 
making kings, for that was to be his chief occupation in the 
years to come. 

But in the hurried recital of these interesting things, I 
almost overlooked relating an incident, for such it was. Na- 



il 



The Deal Is Closed 

poleon exacted a fee from the Spanish King for the bounty 
of this Italian kingdom of one million souls, and King 
Charles, who was land poor, gave him Louisiana. 

And so it happened on October 1, 1800, that the Secret 
Treaty of San Ildefonso was signed (for this was before the 
blessed day of open covenants), and his Catholic IMajesty 
receded all of Louisiana to France, from whom Spain had 
acquired it forty years before. And the wild province which 
had been proclaimed and named b.y La Salle to embrace all 
the lands traversed and watered by the ]\Iississippi and its 
tributaries became French again. What were the bound- 
aries of the vast realm bartered for a petty Italian king- 
dom I Some said they crossed the Rockies to the northwest 
coast. Others that they extended east and embraced west 
Florida. Others that they embraced all Texas down to the 
Rio Grande. And so it happened that Texas and some ten 
other of our now American States were lightly bartered to 
make a petty duke a petty king in a land thousands of miles 
from these shores. 



The Deal Is Closed. 

Rufus King, our IMinister to England, heard rumors of 
the secret recession of Louisiana to France in return for 
an Italian kingdom, as early as March, 1801, and wrote to 
James ]\Iadison, our Secretary of State, advising of the 
report. 

Our ministers to England, France and Spain were at once 
charged to learn the facts, for this country was deeply in- 
terested in the affair. But the contracting parties were very 
reticent about giving out information, and though Mr. Liv- 
ingston, our Minister to France, was very diligent and in- 



12 



The Deal Is Closed 

quisitive, it was nearly a year before he had a first hand 
confirmation of the secret bargain. 

President Jefferson was much moved by the danger of a 
powerful neighbor in control of the Lower IMississippi. In 
April, 1802, he wrote Livingston: "There is on this globe 
a single spot the possessor of which is our natural habitual 
enem}^ It is New Orleans, through which the produce of 
three-eighths of our territory must pass to market. France, 
placing herself in that door, assumes to us the attitude of de- 
fiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Her 
feeble state is such that her possession of the place would 
hardly be felt by us and it would not be long before sojne 
circumstance might arise which would make the cession to 
us worth her while. The day France takes possession of 
Louisiana, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet. ' ' 

Then came a long year of negotiations for the purchase 
of a site at the mouth of the river. Livingston was unable 
to get the French statesmen to talk to him with any free- 
dom. At one time after the terms of the treaty of San llde- 
fonso were generally known Talleyrand sought to deny to 
Livingston that France had acquired Louisiana, and ad- 
vised him to apply to Spain if he wanted to purchase any 
part of the territory. Just at this juncture the Spanish 
Intendant at New Orleans aggravated matters very much by 
annulling the treaty of 1795 between the United States and 
Spain, and closing New Orleans to ships bearing American 
merchandise and products. 

This caused a tremendous stir in all the western country, 
and Livingston promptly advised Talleyrand that since 
Spain still owned Louisiana, as he intimated, we would 
know how to deal with her, and if she would permit a petty 
official at New Orleans to annul a national treaty, we would 
take possession of the port and open it to our commerce and 



13 



The Deal Is Closed 

deal with Spain on the ground. This prompt direct state- 
ment soon brought an admission that Louisiana had passed 
back to France, but they said that it was not for sale. The 
act of the Spanish Intendant at New Orleans in 1802 annul- 
ling the privilege of depot facilities for American goods, 
caused much excitement in the United States, and Pres- 
ident Jefferson knew that if this country could not pur- 
chase New Orleans and the unrestricted right to use the 
Lower Mississippi, that it would only be a matter of a few 
years when the westerners would take it by force. In 
fact a resolution was offered in the United States Senate 
suggesting the latter course, and it was only kept from pas- 
sage by assurances that the administration was using every 
efforf to reach an agreement with France and Spain. 

In order to give due emphasis to the activities that were 
being put forth to accomplish this result, Jefferson named 
James Monroe, of Virginia, Envoy Extraordinary to 
France and Spain, charging him to hasten negotiations for 
the purchase of New Orleans and the Spanish territory 
east of the Mississippi River, 

In all the correspondence that passed between our Gov- 
ernment and Livingston and i\Ionroe during these long 
negotiations, there was scant mention of the territory 
west of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans, for no 
one was interested in it. In one letter it w^as suggested 
that if we had to purchase it, we might be able to sell it for 
enough to recover the price paid for the whole. Napoleon 
was a visionary person at thirty, and had many schemes 
for the use of Louisiana. 

At one time he was going to found a vast colonial em- 
pire, and an expedition was being fitted out for that end. 
Livingston wrote Madison in March, 1802, "It is a darling 



14 



The Deal Is Closed 

object of Napoleon, who sees in it a means to gratify his 
friends and dispose of his enemies." 

But just then his eternal quarrel with England renewed it- 
self, and it was currently reported that the British Govern- 
ment was planning an expedition to occupy New Orleans. 
This quickly determined him to employ his colonial ex- 
pedition in his war with England and to hurriedly sell 
Louisiana to the United States, to keep it from falling into 
English hands. 

Forty years before, when France and England were near- 
ing the end of the French and Indian wars, and it was evi- 
dent that England would triumph, and after Canada had 
been taken from the French, Louisiana had been hurriedly 
ceded by France to Spain to keep it out of English hands, 
.and now for the last time it was bartered about in the politi- 
cal game of European nations. 

And the country that had been claimed and named by 
La Salle in his verbal proclamation made on the Missis- 
sippi one hundred and twenty years before, and that had 
been bartered back to France for an Italian kingdom, be- 
came a part of the United States of America. 



15 



TEXAS TRADED FOR FLORIDA 

During the centuries since the English, Spanish and 
French explorers had first come into North America and 
laid the claims of these nations to the continent, there had 
been no settlement of the western boundaries, and no one 
could say with any approximate accuracy what was in- 
cluded when France ceded Louisiana to Spain in 1763, or 
when Spain receded it to France in 1800, or when it was sold 
to "the United States in 1803. Livingston asked the French 
diplomats if the Spanish cession to France at San Ildefonso 
had included the Floridas, and they told him they supposed 
so. Pinckney, our IMinister to Spain, made the same in- 
quiry at Madrid, and was told they supposed not. No one 
seemed to know or care ver}^ much. 

Livingston wrote in 1802, while negotiations for purchase 
were pending: ^'As part of the territory of Spain, Louisi- 
ana had no precise boundary, so it is easy to foresee the 
fate of Mexico. The boundary between Canada and Louisi- 
ana is alike unsettled." 

While there was much concern as to how far east Louis- 
iana could be extended, no one connected with our Govern- 
ment in these negotiations seemed to care a rap how far 
north and west it went. Livingston wrote President Jeffer- 
son in October, 1802 : ''Joseph Bonaparte asked me wheth- 
er we would prefer the Floridas to Louisiana, and I told 
him Ave had no wish to extend our boundary across the Mis- 
sissippi ' ' ; and again in 1803, he wrote : ' ' Talleyrand asked 
me today if we wanted the whole of Louisiana, and I hold 
him no, only New Orleans and the Floridas. ' ' 



17 



Texas Traded for Florida 

In fact Jefferson and Madison wanted nothing but the 
mouth of the IMississippi River and west Florida, through 
which the rivers from our then western and southern States 
flowed to the Gulf. 

At one time it was suggested by Livingston that the 
Island and City of New Orleans be made an independent 
state under the joint sovereignty of France, Spain and the 
United States, in which event this country would not be 
further interested in the purchase of Louisiana. 

When Monroe reached Paris in 1803, Napoleon had in- 
dicated to Livingston his willingness to sell, and insisted 
on selling the whole territory, so it happened that our Min- 
isters had it fairly forced upon them. 

After the bargain was closed, Livingston was much 
worried for fear the Washington Government would cen- 
sure him for having agreed to take the country west of 
the Mississippi River. 

On May 13, 1803, a few days after the treaty was signed, 
Livingston and Monroe wrote Madison an apology for hav- 
ing accepted the whole territory. "We well know (they 
wrote) that the acquisition of so great an extent was not 
contemplated." 

But they pointed out that they were unable to escape tak- 
ing it all without endangering the whole negotiations, that 
Marbois, the French Minister, was obdurate. And when after 
concluding the bargain, they came to examine Monroe's 
commission, they found it restricted him to the purchase of 
territory east of the River, this gave them a new fright. 
But Jefferson and Madison were indulgent and did not 
complain at them for having been bullied into accepting 
nearly one million square miles more than they were in- 
structed to buy at the same price. Jefferson wrote a friend 
that he might use this western country for the Indians and 



18 



Texas Traded for Florida 

move those east of the Mississippi upon it. But what were 
its boundaries ? The American ministers were unable to get 
any definite statement from France about boundaries. They 
would be told that France got from Spain in 1800 the same 
territory that it ceded Spain in 1763. Livingston, in his 
diary of events surrounding the purchase, says: 

*'I asked the minister what were the east bounds of the 
territory ceded to us.'' "He said he did not know, we 
must take it as they had received it." "I asked him what 
Spain meant to put them in possession of and w^hat they 
had meant to take from Spain. " " He said, ' I do not know^, 
construe it in your own wa.y. You have made a noble bar- 
gain, make the most of it'." 

The American Government felt that the purchase ex- 
tended to the Rio Grande on the southwest, and included 
West Florida on the east, but was so much more interested 
in Florida than in Texas that little thought was given the 
latter. The Spanish Government was much disappointed at 
learning of the sale of Louisiana to the United States, and 
the Marquis d'Yrujo, Spain's Minister to the United States, 
addressed a series of notes to Secretary Madison declaring 
that France had no right to sell the territory. Madison 
mildly but firmly told the Marquis to tell his troubles to 
Napoleon, and the incident was closed. Spain did not rel- 
ish the United States as a next door neighbor, and set about 
to hold Texas as part of its Mexican possessions. 

In order to keep Americans out, it w^as planned to have 
a vast area between the two countries filled with Indians, 
who would be friendly wdth IMexico but hostile to the Amer- 
ican settler. 

The Jefferson administration was contented with the ac- 
quisition of Louisiana. The days of Madison, who succeed- 



19 



Texas Traded for Florida 

ed, were largely filled with other matters, including the war 
of 1812. 

When Monroe became President, he bent his energies to 
the acquisition of the Floridas with the hope of getting 
Spain forever out of the territory east of the Mississippi. 
When the De Onis treaty was before the Senate, Henry 
Clay stated that by right the Louisiana purchase included 
Texas to the Rio Grande, but neither he nor anyone else se- 
riously objected to giving up Texas for Florida. 

The De Onis treaty of 1819 gave the United States Flor- 
ida and released Spain's claims to all lands north of the 
42nd parallel, the northern boundary of California. 

In return the United States gave up its claim that Texas 
was part of the Louisiana purchase, and for the time be- 
ing all claim to the country w^est of the Sabine and south 
of Red River was relinquished. And so it came to pass 
that Texas, which Avas in fact a part of the Louisiana pur- 
chase on account of LaSalle's explorations, was relin- 
quished in 1819, to be reclaimed by American frontiersmen 
in 1821-1836 and re-annexed to the American Union in 
1836-1846. 

The period between the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, 
and the De Onis treaty in 1819, was a boisterous one, full 
of uncertainty for the future of Texas. If the United 
States had at once openly claimed Texas as part of the 
Louisiana Purchase, though it may have brought on a 
conflict wdth Spain, it is reasonably certain that the 
claim could have been made good, both from a stand- 
point of rightful title under the French purchase and of 
military strength to maintain that title. But the Wash- 
ington Government neither openly claimed Texas nor 
disavowed title to it, and for the sixteen years that 
followed the purchase until the De Onis treaty of 1819, 



20 



Texas Traded for Florida 

Spain Avas in constant apprehension that the States 
would claim and take Texas, and there was an ever- 
growing sentiment, especially in the Southern States, 
for such an achievement. 

Spain had bitterlj^ resented the cession of Louisiana to 
the United States, and, suspicious of the intentions of the 
American Government, Spanish soldiers were sent into 
Texas immediately following the Louisiana Purchase, and 
stationed themselves at Nacogdoches and other places 
near the border. For a time a conflict of arms seemed 
imminent between Wilkinson, the American General, and 
Herrera, the Spanish Commander, who was stationed at 
Xacogdoches with several hundred men. These worthies, 
however, patched up a truce, and assumed authority to 
agree that the territory between the Sabine and the 
Arroyo Hondo should be a neutral ground, over which 
neither country would exercise any authority until there 
was some definite boundary settlement. 

The vast area of unsettled country between the Sabine 
and the Rio Grande and the unprotected Spanish frontiers 
led many people in the United States to connive at en- 
terprises to occupy this country. Even before the Ameri- 
can purchase of Louisiana, an Irish-American by the 
name of Philip Nolan came into Texas in 1801, with a 
small company of men, and established a camp on the 
Brazos above where \Yaco now stands, and busied him- 
self in capturing wild horses, though this was not sup- 
posed to be the real purpose of his expedition. Hearing 
of his presence in the country, Spanish soldiers were sent 
out from San Antonio and Nacogdoches, and Nolan's 
force was surprised, he and several of his men Avere 
killed, and the remnant were carried away and incarcer- 
ated in Mexican prisons. 



21 



Texas Tr.\ded for Florida 

The vision of empire that Texas afforded to that 
generation of American adventurers caught the fancy 
of many men, among them no less a person than the cele- 
brated Aaron Burr, once Vice-President of the United 
States. At the close of his term of office in 1804, Burr 
attempted to organize an expedition into Texas, with 
the hope of bringing on a war with Spain and invading 
Mexico and establishing a Government on the ruins of 
Sp^ish authority in New Spain. It is well known now 
that General Joseph Wilkinson shared Burr's visionary 
scheme, and encouraged it, although he afterwards re- 
pented his connection with it, and reported Burr to the 
Washington Government and assisted in his prosecution 
which followed the failure of Burr's ill-starred enter- 
prise. 

In 1810 forces in Mexico began the long struggle for 
independence from Spain, and the war raged with vary- 
ing fortunes for more than ten years. Many fugitive 
patriots from Mexico, fleeing from Spanish persecution, 
found their way into the United States and undertook 
to enlist aid for the revolutionary cause among the ad- 
venturous* gentry they found in Louisiana and along the 
border, all willing to take a chance at a military enter- 
prise. 

In 1811 the first of these expeditions was fitted out at 
Nachitoches, where a young lieutenant in the American 
army by the name of Augustus McGee was induced to 
resign his commission and lead the newly recruited army 
into Texas, openly espousing the cause of the Mexican 
patriots and with the ostensible purpose of aiding the 
revolution. This so-called Republican Army was largely 
recruited from outlaws and vagabonds who infested the 
neutral ground which Wilkinson and Herrera had set 



22 



Texas Traded for Florida 

up some years before. There was with it a goodly- 
sprinkling of pirates who came from LaFitte's maritime 
enterprise that was then flourishing on the north coast 
of the Mexican Sea. Many persons, of various nationali- 
ties and of yet more varied fortunes, foregathered with 
this motley band, and McGee led it as far as San Anto- 
nio, where, after some successes, it was terribly defeated 
in a battle with Spanish soldiers fought on the Medina 
River below San Antonio in 1812. 

The Spanish army which effected the destruction of the 
invading forces was commanded by Arredondo, who had 
been sent by the viceroy to repel the invasion. A young 
sub-lieutenant with a Vera Cruz regiment, by the name 
of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, was in Arredondo 's 
command, and was cited by his General for bravery in 
the battle of Medina. It has always been said that the 
erroneous impression which Lieutenant Santa Anna got in 
the battle of Medina of the relative fighting qualities of 
his countrj^men and men from the United States of the 
North led him into a great disaster on the San Jacinto 
twenty odd years later. 

Although Nolan was killed for coming into Texas and 
searching for wild horses, and Aaron Burr was ap- 
prehended and disgraced for coveting an empire in the 
Southwest, and McGee 's expedition was terribly punished 
by Spanish soldiers, this did not deter other alventurous 
persons from following in their footsteps. In 1816 other 
real and feigned friends of the Mexican revolution un- 
dertook to operate against Spanish authority from a base 
established on Galveston Island, and from this advanta- 
geous situation privateers did large damage to Spanish 
shipping and made the Island the headquarters for an in- 
dustrious period of piracy. In 1816 Jean LaFitte, lately 

23 



Texas Traded for Florida 

a leading citizen of New Orleans and for many years 
an avowed buccaneer, finding himself on unfriendly re- 
lations with President I\Iadison, moved the base of his 
operations from the Louisiana coast and established him- 
self at Galveston, where for the next four years he op- 
erated with great vigor against Spanish commerce. 

The news of the De Onis treaty, by which Texas was 
traded for Florida, was received along the Louisiana 
border with great chagrin, for it was the fond hope and 
the open boast of many an ambitious adventurer to oc- 
cupy Texas and claim it as a part of Louisiana. Amor.g 
those covetous of such a result was a young physician of 
Nachitoches by the name of James Long, who married a 
Diece of General Wilkinson. This brave and brilliant 
voung American had visions of empire as gaudy as those 
i,l Aaron Burr, and in 1819 he undertook to organize an 
expedition into Texas and established a settlement at 
Bolivar's Point at the end of the peninsula across the 
channel from Galveston Island. He spent his personal 
fortune in the expedition, and in 1820 came again to 
Bolivar, this time accompanied by his young wife. The 
day they reached Bolivar's Point they could see a con- 
siderable activity across the channel at the pirate settle- 
ment of Jean LaFitte, and Mrs. Jjong Avent over to pay 
a visit to the commodore. She found everything in hurry 
and bustle, for LaFitte 's men were abandoning Galveston 
and setting sail for the Southern Seas. The pirate chief, 
however, could not miss the opportunity to be courteous 
to a visiting lady, so he held his squadron for a few 
hours while he entertained her at dinner, after which she 
rowed back to Bolivar, and the pirate fleet quit these 
shores forever. 



24 



Texas Traded for Florida 

General Long went into Mexico the next year, and was 
there when the revolutionists succeeded in overthrow- 
ing the Spanish authority. He expected to be well re- 
ceived by his compatriots, for his expedition had avowed 
the patriot cause, but he was assassinated in the City of 
Mexico by some of his own "friends" the following 
year. 



25 



THE COLONIES 



First Colonial Grant to Moses Austin. 

When John Quincy Adams and the Spanish Minister, 
De Onis, concluded the Texas-Florida trade m 1819, 
Spain for the first time felt that its title to Texas was 
clear. 

During nearly three hundred years it had claimed the 
vast area north of the Rio Grande as part of Mexico, 
it had been unable to people it with Spanish subjects. 
Mexico, which for three centuries had been governed by 
Spanish viceroys, was a vast country, greater in area 
than any nation of the world save Russia and possibly 
China. It was divided into twelve intendencies, the sixth 
of which was San Luis Potosi, which was itself divided 
into four provinces and four districts, one of which 
provinces was Texas. Texas remained practically unin- 
habited except by roving bands of Indians. In 1821 
there were squalid Spanish or Mexican settlcDicrits at 
San Antonio, Nacogdoches, La Bahia and a few other 
places, remnants of the old Spanish missions which had 
failed. The seat of Government for this province was 
San Antonio, which had been founded nearly a century 
before. 

In 1819, when news of the De Onis treaty was pub- 
lished, Moses Austin was living in Washington County, 
Mi?«ouri. He was a native of Connecticut, and had 
moved into Missouri while it was yet a part of Louisiana 
during the time it was under Spanish sovereignty, and 
he had become a Spanish subject. He conceived the 
great idea of leading an American colony into Texas, and 
it seemed to him that, since Spain's title to Texas was 

27 



First Colonial Grant to Moses Austin 

now recognized by the United States, its objection to col- 
onization of the country would be withdrawn. The Span- 
ish Cortes passed a decree in 1820 authorizing the Span- 
ish authorities in Mexico to grant colonization privileges, 
but this fact never seems to have been related to Austin, 
nor was it known in the States, or even generally known 
in Mexico. He planned to go to San Antonio and 
make his application in^ person. Like most men who 
nourish a great enterprise he had faith in its success and 
faith in himself. He began to plan for taking his colony 
into Texas before he applied himself to the Spanish au- 
thorities for permission. He sent his son, Stephen, with 
equipment and men enough to open a large plantation 
on Red River, just across from Texas in Arkansas at a 
place called Long's Prairie. His thought was to es- 
tablish a kind of gateway there, through which emigrants 
would pass, and to furnish supplies and facilities for 
forwarding people who would apply for entrance into 
Texas. In December, 1820, he made the trip on horse- 
back from Missouri to San Antonio, and presented him- 
self to the Spanish Governor at that place, seeking per- 
mission to found a colony in Texas. 

He was ordered to forthwith leave the country, and, 
when about to obey this mandatory instruction, he met 
upon the military plaza the Baron de Bastrop, a Prussian 
soldier of fortune, who had spent many years in the 
Spanish provinces, and was then in the service of the 
Spanish Government. Bastrop and Austin had met in a 
restaurant in New Orleans some years before, and re- 
newed their chance acquaintance upon the plaza just 
as Austin was about to resume his long, doleful journey 
back to the States. 



28 



The Last of the Viceroys 

Bastrop interceded with the Spanish Governor, and 
that dignitary, being convinced that Austin was not a 
foreigner, received his petition for permission to setthi 
three hundred families in Texas, and forwarded it, with 
a letter recommending its acceptance, to the Superior 
Government at Monterey. 

Thinking that his petition might be long delayed, yet 
believing it would be granted, Austin started back to'tiie 
States about January 1, 1821, following the Old Spanish 
Trail from San Antonio to Nachitoches, Louisiana, Avhere 
he met his son, Stephen. These long journeys, with the 
hardships incident thereto, so imperiled the elder Aus- 
tin's health that he reached home in Missouri an invalid, 
and died early the following June. 

His petition sent from San Antonio, with the recom- 
mendation of its acceptance made by Governor Martinez, 
was received at Monterey, and on the 17th day of Janu- 
ary, 1821, the Spanish Commandant, representing the 
Supreme Government of the Eastern Internal Provinces 
of New Spain, granted the request, and sent Don Erasmus 
Seguin to San Antonio to notify Austin that his petition 
had been granted, and to officially conduct him and his 
three hundred families into Texas. 

Moses Austin receiA-ed information that his petition 
had been granted while on his deathbed at his home in 
Missouri, and be bequeathed to his son, Stephen P. Aus- 
tin, the legacy of fulfilling the commission. 



The Last of the Viceroys. 

The act of the Spanish Commandant at ]\Ionterey in ac- 
cepting IMoses Austin's petition, and according him the 
privilege of colonizing three hundred American families 



29 



The Last of the Viceroys 

in Texas, was the first and last of its kind ever made by 
the Spanish authorities of Mexico or New Spain. It was 
among the last acts of Spanish sovereignty in Mexico. 
The war for Mexican independence had been raging for 
more than ten years. 

Augustin de Iturbede was a Spanish officer of great 
ability and led the royalist forces. He had been called the 
Prince Eupert of the Spanish Army. On Febuary 24th, 
1821, he suddenly changed allegiance and announced him- 
self in favor of the patriot cause. On that date he pub- 
lished the celebrated plan of Iguala, which is regarded as 
the official beginning of Mexican independence. From 
that time on it was obvious that the Spanish authority in 
North America was practically at an end. In August, 1821, 
Don Juan O'Donoju, the 62nd and last of the Spanish 
viceroj^s (and he was an Irishman), arrived at Vera Cruz 
to assume the Government of Mexico. He at once saw the 
futility of further effort to maintain Spanish sovereignty, 
and set about to arrange a peace in which there would 
be some advantage to Spain, and sought a compact by 
which some member of the Spanish Royal family would be- 
come ruler of IMexico. 

On August 23rd, 1821, Santa Anna arranged a meeting 
between the new viceroy and Iturbede, and on September 
23rd, mounted on a black charger, Iturbede entered the City 
of Mexico amidst a scene of wild enthusiasm. He was ten- 
dered golden keys upon a silver platter by the first Alcalde 
of the cit3% and Mexico in point of fact became on that date 
an independent nation and began that long, pitiful career of 
anarchy which w^ith slight intermission has prevailed for 
a hundred years. On the 7th of October, 1821, O'Donoju 
(O'Donohoo), scholar, gentleman and diplomat, broken in 
health and spirit by the loss of New Spain to his country, 



30 



Stephen Fuller Austin 

died in the City of Mexico and was interred in the Chapel 
of Los Reyes. Bancroft observes that with the celebration 
of his funeral rites the last shadow of viceregal presence 
and power passed forever. 

While these events were going forward in Mexico, Stephen 
F. Austin, the first of the Empresarios, was pushing the 
enterprise begun by his father, and lie did not learn of the 
change of sovereignty that was taking place until he 
reached the Guadalupe on his way to San Antonio in 
August, 1821. Upon hearing that his father's petitioji 
had been granted, he left New Orleans in June, 1821, and 
w^ent up to Nachitoches to meet Seguin, who came there 
as the special envoy of the Spanish Government to con- 
vey official notice of the grant of January 17th to Moses 
Austin. 

Stephen Fuller Austin, the First and Greatest 
Empresario. 

Stephen F. Austin can easily be recognized as one of the 
great colonial leaders of the English speaking people. 

When we reflect that it was less than fifteen years from 
the advent of his first colony in December, 1821, until the 
Battle of San Jacinto and the Republic, one must look in 
vain for so great an achievement in so short a time else- 
where on this continent. 

The Spanish Commandant at Monterey had dispatched 
Don Erasmus Seguin to the States to inform Austin that 
his petition had been granted, and Don Erasmus, with a 
small party of Spaniards from San Antonio, had proceeded 
along the Old Spanish Trail to Nachitoches, Louisiana, 
where they waited to meet jMoses Austin. Austin's failing 
health had warned him of his approaching death, and he 

31 



Stephen Fuller Austin 

arranged for his son, Stephen, to come from New Orleans 
and meet Seguin and take charge of the enterprise. Ste- 
phen left New Orleans on June 18th, 1821, and proceeded 
to Nachitoches, where he met Seguin and received formal 
confirmation of the Spanish grant to his father. 

On July 2nd, 1821. Austin and his small party, along 
with Seguin 's party, left Nachitoches for San Antonio by 
way of Nacogdoches. Austin was accompanied by a few 
daring spirits who, hearing of his proposed plans, had 
joined him on his firsit journej' to Texas. Among those 
who rode with him were Doctor James Hewiston, well known 
in the early colonial days. A few years later Doctor Hewis- 
ton joined with James Powers in founding the Powers and 
Hewiston Colony of Irish immigrants in southwest Texas. 
The last glimpse we get of Doctor Hewiston was in 1842, 
when he was practicing medicine at Saltillo and adminis- 
tered mercies to the unhapp}^ men of Mier. 

William Little, from St. Louis, accompanied Austin. He 
afterwards located his headright league in Fort Bend Coun- 
ty, where he lived for many years, and his plantation be- 
came a steamboat landing in the later days of Brazos navi- 
gation. On July 10th, as the party proceeded towards the 
Texas frontier, a message overtook them bringing to Austin 
the melancholy news of the death of his father, which had 
occurred in IMissouri on June 10th. The party pressed for- 
ward and on Monday, Jul}^ 16th, 1821, entered the province 
of Texas and rode on to Nacogdoches, which they reached 
on July 20th. In Austin's report of their visit to Nacog- 
doches he says: ''This place was in ruins. There yet re- 
mained one church, seven residences, and a total population 
of thirty-six inhabitants." The whole of this thirty-six 
were assembled and received instructions from Don Eras- 
mus representing his Catholic IMajesty, the King of Spain. 



32 




t/ /, yX/^.^v^^'^z^^ 



^^-^ //.j^/^ 



Autographed by Austin ten days before his death 



San Antonio One Hundred Years Ago 

He advised the people of Nacogdoches that it was the King's 
pleasure that the \Yhole community move further east to- 
ward the Louisiana line, and they one and all acquiesced 
in this modest request, and agreed to migrate eastward upon 
short notice. Ton Erasmus advised that he would return 
from San Antonio in the early autumn and complete the 
details for this exodus. These matters of state having been 
properly dispatched, the whole party proceeded on towards 
San Antonio, which was the next habitation. 

San Antonio — One Hundred Years Ago. 

From Nacogdoches to San Antonio is not so far in these 
Pullman days, but it was quite a journey one hundred years 
ago. 

Austin and Seguin, along with their little party, left 
Nacogdoches on July 21st, following the old San Antonio 
road. They supplied themselves wdth meat by killing deer 
and buffalo as they went along. 

On Sunday, August 12th, they reached the Guadaloupe, 
where they went into camp, and a messenger from San An- 
tonio met them there bringing news of the independence of 
Mexico. There w^ere fifteen or twenty Spaniards in the 
l^arty, and they received this information with manifesta- 
tions of great joy. 

The party arrived at San Antonio three weeks after leav- 
ing Nacogdoches and considered that the journey had 
been made in a very reasonable time. 

Old San Antonio, the most interesting city in Texas, 
is rich with rare traditions dear to the student of history. 
It had its beginnings more than one hundred years before 
the advent of the Austins, and had been the most important 
place in Texas during the last century. The chain of mis- 

33 



San Antonio One Hundred Years Ago 

sions, now in ruins, which one yet sees along the river, are 
evidence of futile efforts of Spain to evangelize and colonize 
north of the Rio Grande. Authorities vary as to the popu- 
lation of San Antonio at this time, but from the best in- 
formation obtainable the population varied about as much 
as the reports that we now get. It was a floating and more 
or less transient populace and varied from 3,000 to 
5,000. A few years before, Colonel Zebulon ]\I. Pike, of 
the United States Army, had come through Texas charged 
with a mission from President Jefferson, and he gives a 
very interesting account of his short visit in San Antonio, 
where he reports having met some very refined and cul- 
tured Spanish people. For the most part the inhabitants 
dwelt in miserable houses with mud walls and grass thatched 
roofs. During the more than two centuries which had pre- 
ceded, the Spanish title to Texas had been in much 
doubt and the policy of rigid exclusion which had pre- 
vailed was due to the fear that either French or English ex- 
plorers would traverse the country and lay claim to it. 
Spain was very much in the position of a man who claims 
a tract of land with a doubtful title and Avho is depending 
upon its possession alone to supply the defects in his 
title. 

When it was evident that the Spanish missions would 
fail, the whole colonization scheme seems to have been 
abandoned. 

In 1730, nearly one hundred years before the time about 
which we write, the Spanish Government made an effort 
to transplant people from its island colonies to Texas and 
actually brought fifteen families from the Canary Islands 
who were permanently located in San Antonio. This plan 
was not carried further because of the great cost of trans- 
planting these people. The feeble and futile efforts of 



34 



Austin in San Antonio 

Spain to reclaim and colonize the vast territory are shown 
in remarkable contrast when we contemplate that it was 
just fourteen years from the time that Stephen Austin 
first rode into San Antonio in August, 1821, until he led 
the patriot army of 1835 which drove the Mexicans out 
of that city. Austin and his American colonists did far 
more for Texas in these few years than had been accom- 
plished by Spain and the Spaniards during more than three 
centuries. Austin remained in San Antonio from August 
12th to the 21st, in conference with the local authorities. 

Martinez, who had been Governor in December when 
Moses Austin was in San Antonio, was still Governor in 
August w^hen Stephen reached there. While it was gener- 
ally recognized that ]\Iexico had become independent, yet 
the actual transfer of authority did not occur until Iturbede 
made his entrance into the City of ^lexico in September 
following. 

Austin in San Antonio. 

While in San Antonio from August 12th to 21st, 1821, 
Austin and Governor Martinez reached a general under- 
standing as to such details as seemed required under the 
original grant made by the Spanish authorities at IMon- 
terey in the preceding January. In the letter of acceptance 
which Martinez had written Moses Austin in February, 
1821, he referred to the fact that some of the immigrants 
might come by sea, and called attention to a port Avhich the 
Spanish Government had recently opened on the Bay of 
San Bernardo (Llatagorda) and he advised Austin that 
this port be used as a place of entry. While Stephen 
Austin w-as in San Antonio, Governor Martinez gave him 
a formal letter under date of August 14, 1821, with 



35 



Austin in San Antonio 

meagre instructioiLs as to the country he might explore, 
and asking that when he had explored it and decided 
upon liis exact location, that he report to the Governor. 
In this letter Martinez says: 

"You can proceed to the River Color^ido and examine 
the land on its margins which may be suited for the loca- 
tion of your Louisiana families, informing me of the place 
which you select in order that when they arrive a competent 
commissioner ma}^ be sent out to distribute the lands, and 
inasmuch as they may come by sea, they must be landed 
in the Bay of San Bernardo, where a port has been opened 
by the Superior Government." 

The letter continues, giving Austin authorit}' to take 
soundings of the Colorado River to its mouth. 

Martinez requested Austin to furnish a plan for the dis- 
tribution of land to the new settlers. Austin proposed one 
which would give the head of each family and each single 
man over age 640 acres, 320 acres in addition for the wife, 
should there be one. 160 acres in addition for each child, 
80 acres in addition for each slave. This plan was presented 
in writing, and Austin received authority from the Gover- 
nor to promise that guaranty to his settlers. This plan, 
though afterwards materially changed, is interesting as 
the one first advertised by Austin in the Ihiited States. 

There is much that is interesting and romantic when one 
contemplates Austin as he left San Antonio August 21, 1821, 
and went out into a vast and to him unknown country to 
seek and locate his empire. The facilities for travel were 
so meager, the guides so ignorant and the trails so indis- 
tinct, that it was indeed a plunge into a wilderness. 

If one will take the map of Texas and study for a mo- 
ment the large area between San Antonio and the coast 



36 



Austin Explores the Gulf Littoral 

and tlience to the north and east toward the Sabine, he will 
get a glimpse of the great land which lay before the am- 
bitious young adventurer as he rode out of Bexar on that 
August day one hundred years ago. It is the great Gulf 
hinterland traversed by the San Antonio, Guadaloupe, Colo- 
rado, Brazos and various rivers which flow down to the 
sea through one of the fairest countries in all of the world. 
Unlike all the latter colonial grants, there were no fixed 
boundaries to the first one and Austin Avas left with few 
restrictions to select his own territory in which to locate 
the first three hundred. The nearest definite destination 
Avhich Austin seems to have had when he left San Antonio 
was the port on the Bay, San Bernardo, at the mouth of 
the Colorado. 



Austin Explores the Gulf Littoral. 

The Spanish Governor, Baron de Bastrop, Dun Erasmus 
Seguin and other local dignitaries bade Austin a formal 
good-bye with many protestations of Castillian friendship 
as he left San Antonio on the morning of August 21, 1821, 
following the road to Goliad. 

In those days there still remained a fragment of the La 
Bahia mission settlement Avhich had been undertaken in the 
last century. An indistinct Spanish trail reached from 
the Gulf through La Bahia on toward Nachitoches, Louisi- 
ana. It had been used by traders and smugglers for more 
than one hundred years. At La Bahia Austin divided his 
company, sending all surplus horses and mules on to Nachi- 
toches, after which he explored the coast country. He 
reached the head waters of ^latagorda Bay on September 6, 
1821, and continued skirting the coast toward the Colorado. 
On September 10, he passed the site of La Salle's settlement, 



37 



Austin Explores the Gulf Littoral 

where 135 years before the French had made a sad effort to 
locate a Colony. There is indeed an interesting picture, 
when one contemplates the young American standing at the 
ruins of the old fort which told of the failure of the bold 
and brilliant La Salle. It was a wild, desolate spot one 
hundred years ago, and the nearest human habitation was 
the squalid little settlement at Goliad which he had passed 
a week before. The Frenchman's dreams were to discover 
and claim the vast realm west of the Mississippi for his 
King. He gave his young life in this hopeless quest and 
sleeps in an unknown grave somewhere in South Texas. 
Austin, though less romantic than the French cavalier, 
had hopes as high and ambitions as vast as those which 
lured La Salle, and had the far better fortune to live long 
enough to see his dreams realized. 

After passing the grave of the French enterprise, Austin 
rode on to the Colorado to seek the port of entry which had 
been so warmly pressed upon him by the Spanish Governor. 
He reached the Colorado on September 15, 1821, and ex- 
plored it down to the Bay, and having also explored the 
lower Brazos he felt that he had found his land of promise 
and hurried back to Nachitoches in order to complete ar- 
rangements for leading his Colony into the wilderness. Few 
men in our history have a higher claim to greatness than 
Stephen F. Austin both from the standpoint of character 
and merit as well as material achievement. 

A latter day writer who has summed up his career and 
understood his hardships, has said of him, "He carried out 
his father's enterprise w^ith a patience that amounted to 
genius and fortitude which was the equivalent of the favor 
of Heaven." 



38 



Austin's Return to the States 

Austin's Return to the States. 

Austin reached Nachitoches on his return from his first 
trip to Texas, October 3, 1821, three months to a day from 
the time that he and Seguin with their company had left 
that place for Bexar. He felt that everything was per- 
manently arranged for his advent into Texas with his three 
hundred. There had been considerable notoriety given 
to his proposed Colony during the summer of 1821, 
while he was yet in Texas. Louisiana and Mississippi pa- 
pers widely published the reports which he gave out upon 
his return to Louisiana in October, and the spirit of adven- 
ture which was rife in those days turned wide atten- 
tion to the new country, which during the farthest recol- 
lection of men then living had been closed to all the world 
save the Spaniard and the wild Indian. Fairy stories of 
the great land west of the Sabine had been told throughout 
the States for many years. It was known that its prairies 
teemed with millions of wild horses. It was known that 
cattle and buffalo abounded there, and little was needed 
to arouse universal interest in a land so vast that no man 
knew its boundaries. 

As early as June in 1821 there were families in Ar- 
kansas and Missouri waiting the word from Austin to 
move into Texas, and in that month, while Stephen Aus- 
tin was yet on his way to Bexar, several families left 
Pecan Point, Arkansas, for somewhere in Texas, and 
reached the Brazos in what is now Washington County, 
in December, 1921. Upon Stephen Austin's return to 
Louisiana in October, 1821, he addressed himself with 
his usual industry to organize expeditions to move into 
Texas by land and by sea. While the first contingent o£ 
Arkansas and Missouri immigrants were coming across 
the country through a trackless wild, the schooner 

39 



The New Years Creek Colony 

*' Lively" with people and supplies was sent out from 
New Orleans in November, 1821, bound for the Texas 
Coast. 



The New Years Creek Colony. 

There is a mystery about the "Lively" which o\iv^ 
hundred years has not entirely cleared up, but there is 
no uncertainty as to the identity of the little advance 
guard which reached the La Bahia crossing on the Brazos 
late in December, 1821, and camped on what they called 
New Years Creek, in what is now Washington Count>', 
January 1, 1822. 

Austin had left New Orleans after arranging for the 
voyage of the "Lively," and hurried up to Nachitoches, 
from whence he had joined these overland immigrants and 
was with them when they lighted their New Year's camp 
fires in the wilderness which was to be their homes and 
the homes of their children for the centuries to come. 

AVhen Austin and his wagon train halted here at the 
La Bahia crossing, they found two American families who 
had preceded them just a few days. These first arrivals 
were Garrett and Higgins, but more than this we have 
no detail as to who they were or whence they came. i\Iany 
years later, Guy M. Bryan (1852) gave the name of Andy 
Robinson, then living in Brazoria County, as the first 
settler in Austin's Colony in Washington Councy. The 
names of the first three hundred who constituted Austin 's 
Colony are well known and are preserved both in Austin's 
records and in the records of the land office. If there are 
descendants of this New Years Colony yet living who can 
from family tradition give any detail as to the first year 
of this Colony, they would supply information much needed 



40 



The Schooner "Lively" 

in Texas history. Such descendants, wherever they are, 
are entitled to all of the glory that comes from a splendid 
heritage — as much entitled to that distinction as the de- 
scendants of those who came on the Mayflower. 

The people of Texas should ever feel a deep interest and 
perpetual pride in the memory of those simple pioneer 
folk who laid the cornerstone of the commonwealth on 
New Years Creek one hundred years ago. Within a few 
weeks James B. Austin, Stephen's brother, and Josiaii II. 
Bell of South Carolina joined this settlement. In after years 
Bell and his honored family became well known in Texas. 
He located his headright grant of two leagues of land on 
the west bank of the Brazos River, in Brazoria County, and 
the great Columbia oil field is largely on his grant. Bell's 
landing was an important place in the navigation of the 
Brazes River for many years. Judge James IT. Bell, son 
of Josiah, was born in the Colony and was a member of the 
Supreme Court of Texas at the outbreak of the war be- 
tween the States. 

As soon as the first details were arranged and the New 
Years Creek colonists had begun hewing their houses, the 
tireless Austin hurried down the river to meet those who 
had come b}^ sea on the "Lively." 

The Schooner "Lively.^' 

The first expedition of Austin's colonists by sea left 
New Orleans on the lU-fated schooner "Lively." 

Joseph Hawkins, who had been a college mate with Aus- 
tin and who was a prosperous Southern lawj^er, enthused 
over Austin's Texas plans, financed this expedition. Aus- 
tin and Hawkins stood on the dock at New Orleans and 
saw the little boat, freighted with its immigrant passengers 



41 



The Schooner "Lively" 

and a miscellaneous cargo, sail for Texas on the morning 
of November 22, 1821. The next day Austin left New 
Orleans by boat for Nachitoches to join the overland party 
.with which he came on to the Brazos. 

The ''Lively" carried seed for planting, various imple- 
ments of husbandry and eighteen immigrants, several of 
whom had been with Austin on his journe}^ into Texas in 
the preceding summer. The boat had instructions to go 
to the mouth of the Colorado and into the port of 
entry which had been so highly recommended by Gover- 
nor Martinez in his official correspondence with the Aus- 
tins. After many days floundering about in the Gulf, 
the vessel unloaded its cargo and most of its passengers at 
the mouth of the Brazos in December, 1821, some days be- 
fore the New Years Creek Colony pitched camp 150 miles 
up the river. As the ' ' Lively ' ' came through Galveston Bay, 
it encountered a pirate ship which ran away, and saw the 
ruins of a schooner which had been scuttled and beached 
on the Island. Piracy on the high seas flourished in those 
days and had been a rather romantic pastime for gentlemen 
of adventure since the Spanish ships had first begun bring- 
ing home Mexican gold three hundred years before. This 
manly art, however, was in its last stages, and the exodus 
of LaFitte from Galveston Island under pressure from the 
United States Government only a few years before marked 
the beginning of the end of robbery on these seas. 

When the Captain in charge of the ''Lively" unloaded at 
the Brazos, he went further west to find the Spanish port 
in the Bay of San Bernardo and to await the coming of 
Austin, who was to meet the vessel there. The available 
data leaves much doubt as to the course and career of the 
"Lively" after it left the little company of immigrants at 
the mouth of the Brazos and spread sail for the west. Some 



42 



The Schooner "Lively" 

say it found entrance to the Colorado River and reported a 
fine harbor. Others that it never found the river. Others 
say that it returned to New Orleans and brought ou*t a 
second cargo early the next year and was wrecked on the 
end of Galveston Island. (This is the most likely version.) 
There are others who say that the Captain sailed away with 
the boat to some iMexican port and sold it and spent his 
thirty pieces of silver in riotous living. And there was 
even a rumor among the pioneer folks that it turned 
pirate and roved up and down the Spanish Main. 

The immigrants left at the mouth of the Brazos River 
made their way up the stream on foot and in a small row 
boat, and after weary weeks reached a place where the 
prairie to the west came down to the river's edge, and lo- 
cated themselves and began a first settlement upon the 
spot which is now the town of Richmond on the Brazos. 
Richmond may well lay claim to the honor of being the 
first settlement in Austin's Colony, and the first Anglo- 
American town in Texas. Before they left the mouth of 
the river, they were joined by one William ]Morton and 
members of his family, who had come in a small boat from 
Mobile. His boat had been wrecked, and he and those with 
him were thrown ashore to begin life with the ''Lively" 
immigrants. In going up the river the immigrants were on 
constant lookout for Austin's overland colonists, whom they 
expected to come down the river. William IMorton re- 
mained at the site of this first settlement, and at a later 
date located his headright grant of two leagues on the east 
side of the Brazos River across from Richmond. The 
Southern Pacific bridge across the river spans the stream 
at a point Avhere IMorton 's leagues touch its margin. In 
the meantime Austin left his New Years Colony and went 
across to the Colorado and down the river to meet the 



43 



Austin Goes to Mexico 

''Lively" at the ''Spanish port in the Bay of San Ber- 
nardo." He remained in this vicinity for nearly three 
months waiting and watching for the ship that never came. 
It was a long, tedious wait in an inclement winter, but 
this tenacious, patient man never wearied in his watch 
as long as there was any hope that the vessel would come. 
The cargo that it carried seemed indispensable to his first 
Colony and its loss seemed irreparable. After these weary 
weeks of waiting, he mourned the loss of his entire merchant 
marine and hastened on to San xAntonio to report progress 
to Governor Martinez. He went up the Colorado River to 
where the Bahia road crossed the stream and there met a 
party including his brother, J. E. B. Austin, and Josiah 
Bell and others, and they proceeded on to San Antonio. 
He had been almost continuously in the saddle for more 
than a year and the trials and hardships that he had en- 
dured, including the loss of the "Lively," were indeed 
severe, but all these things were meager when compared witli 
the trials and tribulations that awaited him in the immedi- 
ate years to come. 

Aiistiji Goes to Mexico. 

Austin reached San Antonio the second time on the 22nd 
of March, 1822, and reported immediately to Governor IMar- 
tinez. It had dawned upon the Governor in the interim 
since Austin w^ent away in the preceding August, that the 
change of sovereignty in Mexico might affect his authority, 
and it had also been suggested to him that he had gone too 
far in agreeing with Austin upon the quantity of land Aus- 
tin could promise his settlers. In any event this worthy 
Spanish gentleman was reticent and more or less disturbed 
when Austin called to see him, and advised Austin that he 



U 



Austin Goes to Mexico 

go to the Cit}^ of JMexico forthwith and take up the further 
details with the new IMexican Government. Iturbede had 
been acknowledged as the executive head of the Govern- 
ment since he entered the City of Mexico in the preceding 
September, and had called a Congress which was about to 
meet, and it was to this new authority that Austin was di- 
rected to apply himself. He did not speak the Spanish 
language. He had not come prepared for such a journey, 
his presence seemed indispensable to his colonists, but with 
his characteristic promptness, he left immediately for the 
City of IMexico, leaving Josiah 11. Bell in charge during his 
absence. 

A journey from San Antonio to the City of ^Mexico in 
those days was one of hardship and peril. It Avas a dis- 
tance of 1200 miles through a wild country infested with 
Indians and brigands of all kinds. He rode out of San 
Antonio accompanied by Doctor Andrews, who went with 
him a portion of the way. On the second day out they were 
surrounded by Comanche Indians, but Austin knew enough 
of the Indian language to make his peace with them. They 
got away, however, with some of his chattel effects, among 
them a Spanish grammar that he carried on his saddle so 
that he could study the Spanish language as he went along. 
Just what the Comanches wanted with this Spanish gi-am- 
mar is not clear, but at any rate it was found in the pos- 
session of a roving band of Indians north of the Red River 
several months later. Austin's name and address were writ- 
ten in it, and the rumor got back to his home in jMissouri 
and to his relatives there that he had been murdered by the 
Comanches. 

After crossing the Rio Grande, he was advised it was 
not safe to proceed without an armed guard, but he and 
his companion, Christie, left IMonterey on foot disguised as 



45 



Austin Goes to Mexico 

beggars. They improvised a story that they were poor pa- 
triots who had served in the revolution that had lately suc- 
ceeded, and that they were making a pilgrimage to the 
Capital to ask the new Government to remunerate them 
for their services. On the 29th day of April, 1822, after 
thirty-six days spent on the way, Austin first saw the 
City of Mexico. He found the city in a turbulent, noisy 
mood, for Iturbede was concluding his arrangements to 
assume the title of Emperor. 

The plan of Iguala under which Iturbede had operated 
since the preceding February, tendered the Mexican throne 
to Ferdinand VII, then the Bourbon King of Spain, con- 
ditioned, however, that he would remove to IMexico and 
bind himself to support a constitution to be promulgated 
by the Llexican people. Ferdinand declined the honor un- 
der the onerous conditions named, and it occurred to Itur- 
bede that it would not be well to let the proffered crown go 
by default, so he contrived with much shrewdness to have 
himself proclaimed Emperor. Austin was present in the 
city and saw this done on the 18th day of May, 1822, when 
Iturbede annexed the euphonious title of Constitutional 
Emperor of the Mexican Nation and Grand JMaster of the 
Imperial Order of Guadaloupe. 

The first Mexican Congress had assembled at the call of 
Iturbede in the previous February, and was in session when 
these things occurred, and though the Congress was sum- 
moned by him and supposed to be composed largely of his 
creatures, it did not approve of his imperial designs, and 
immediately after he assumed or usurped this high author- 
ity, there began a many cornered fight between the Em- 
peror and the Congress and various other factions w^hich has 
proceeded with remarkable regularity even unto this day. 

46 



The Emperor Iturbede 



In the midst of these scenes of national chaos, Anstin, 
a perfect stranger in a wild, weary land, without money and 
without friends, and bereft of his Spanish grammar, en- 
tered the City of :\Iexico seeking the proper authority to 
confirm his grant. 

And back on the Brazos, fifteen hundred miles away, the 
advance guard of the old three hundred, as his first colonists 
were called, fought hardships unspeakable as they awaited 
his return. 

The season was unfavorable and the venison lean that 
year in the Colony, and Austin's persistent patience at the 
Mexican Capital was no greater than that of his people 
whom he had left behind. 



The Emperor Iturhede. 

When Austin first reached IMexico in the last days of 
April, 1822, the first Mexican Congress was in session, and 
the supreme authority was supposed to be vested in a Junta 
or committee with Iturbede at its head. Within a very 
few days after his arrival, he saw the Junta, or the regency, 
as it has sometimes been called, converted into the Empire. 
Iturbede, who had himself declared Emperor in May, 1822, 
assumed the title of Augustin I, and many other high 
sounding titles. The Empire over which he figuratively 
ruled was the third in territorial extent of all the nations of 
the earth. It reached from Yucatan in the tropics to the 
far north along the Pacific, probably to Oregon, and its 
eastern and northern borders between it and the United 
States included with Texas nearly seven of our present 
western States. 

The first Congress continued in session for some months 
after the Empire was proclaimed, and at the urgent instance 

47 



The Emperor Iturbede 

of Austin and other persons from the United States who 
were there seeking similar concessions, a colonization com- 
mittee was appointed for the purpose of framing a suitable 
colonization law. At that time no active opposition to per- 
mitting colonization in Texas seemed to have manifested 
itself, although it is now known that many prominent 
Mexican leaders doubted the wisdom of this plan from the 
beginning, and in a very few years tlie}^ succeeded in bring- 
ing about legislation which was designed to stop further 
immigration from the north. The publication in the papers 
of the United States of Austin 's first concession in the sum- 
mer of 1821, caused a number of more or less prominent and 
adventurous Americans to flock to the City of iMexico for 
the purpose of getting similar concessions, and the presence 
and activity of these persons materially embarrassed Austin 
in his plans. Austin immediately filed a memorial with 
the colonization committee giving the history of his and his 
father's activities, and pointing out that he had gone so far 
as to bring his first colonists into Texas, and urging im- 
mediate ratification of the grant made to his father on 
January 17, 1821. This concession would probably have 
been promptly ratified but for the presence of these other 
persons seeking similar concessions, and on this account it 
was thought best that the Congress pass a colonization law 
governing all such grants, and in the usual tedious, tardy 
way that such things have from time immemorial been han- 
dled in all countries, the matter dragged itself along through 
the entire summer. There were many committee meetings 
and proposed drafts and redrafts of a colonization scheme. 
Austin was present at many of these meetings, and had 
made such progress in learning the Spanish language dur- 
ing the first few months, despite the loss of his Spanish 
grammar en route, that he was enabled to materially assist 



48 



The Emperor Iturbede 

the committee in drafting the first colonization law. In 
fact there is a pretty fiction that during this time he made 
a tentative draft of a constitution for the Republic of 
Mexico which was used as a model in the formation of the 
Mexican constitution of 1824. This may, or may not, be 
a pure fiction, but it is well known that he assisted in 
forming the first colonization law, and that he got the 
first and only national colonial grant. 

The first jMexican Congress, however, was a very un- 
stable institution. It seemed to sit more or less during good 
behavior, and the pleasure of the Emperor, and though 
Austin sought to hasten his matters, haste was not an at- 
tribute of the first Congress and especially of the coloniza- 
tion committee of that Congress. His first efforts were 
directed toward a special act confirming his grant for the 
reasons set forth in his memorial. But failing in this, he 
succeeded in haviug matters so advanced that the commit- 
tee all but finished a colonization law in October, 1^22. 
Austin's frankness and persistent patience had won him 
not only the respect of the congressional committee but lh.=» 
warm friendship of some of the more substantial ^Mexican 
leaders, including Herrera and Andres Quintana. The 
proposed colonial enactment was completed all but the 
last few^ sections in the latter part of October, 1822, and it 
was promised passage through Congress within a few days. 
Austin now saw what he deemed the end of his labors in 
INIexico, and after six months of weary waiting, expected 
to take his way homeward within a week. But the storm 
which had been brewing between the Emperor and the first 
Congress burst in all its fury in the latter days of October, 
and on the last day of the month, an otBcer from the Em- 
peror's Army entered the Congressional Chamber and 
read a message from his Imperial Highness, Augustin I, 



49 



The End of the Empire 

dissolving the first Congress sine die and giving the members 
thereof ten minutes, Mexican time, in which to disperse. 
And within this incredulously short time it did disperse. 
In parliamentary language, his decree of dismissal or dis- 
persal had the emergenc}^ clause attached. This incident 
is without parallel in Mexican history. The only thing the 
Mexican people have ever since been known to do in ten 
minutes was to start a revolution. With the going of the 
Congress went the colonial committee, and went also the 
first draft of the proposed national colonization law, fin- 
ished all but the last three articles. 

Poor Austin was left to begin all over again and doomed 
to other long weary months of work and waiting. And 
back on the Brazos there was a deep malarial gloom. 

The End of the Empire. 

The reign of Iturbede was short, but while it lasted he 
was an Emperor of the old school. He dissolved the first 
Congress on the last day of October, 1822, attaching the 
emergency clause to his decree of dissolution giving the 
members ten minutes to vacate and with positive instruc- 
tions to remain vacated. 

The American colony in the city which had been lobby- 
ing for the passage of a colonization law, with the hope of 
getting colonization contracts, were much discouraged, and 
some of them left the city and abandoned the enterprise. 
When the Emperor had dissolved the Congress, he deter- 
mined that Mexico should be ruled by himself with the as- 
sistance of a Junta, the members of which he would ap- 
point, and he proceeded to name this committee or Junta, 
called in Mexican literature, the Junta Instituyente, and 
this high sounding institution, composed of the Emperor's 



50 



The End of the Empire 

select men, proceeded to administer the affairs of Mexico 
for a few brief weeks. 

Austin made haste to address himself to the Junta Institu- 
yente, to whom he presented his memorial and urged his 
suit. He went over again the long story that he had told 
the congressional committee. The Emperor's Junta In- 
stituyente was less unwieldy than the Congress, and through 
the influence of Herrera and Quintana and others whose 
friendship Austin had made, his petition had a favorable 
hearing, and the matter proceeded with unusual dispatch 
for Mexican affairs. The draft which had been all but com- 
pleted at the time of the dissolution of the ten minute Con- 
gress, was resuscitated and the last three articles added, 
and on January 14, 1823, almost two years from the date 
his father had received the first grant (January 17, 1821), 
Austin received a favorable report from the committee 
recommending the historic colonization law^ of 1823. But 
the committee could not pass the law, only the Emperor 
could give it final sanction, and it went to his Majesty with 
a favorable recommendation. 

On February 18, 1823, Augustin, by divine providence 
Emperor of ]Mexico, etc., etc., formulated his decree per- 
mitting the law to become effective insofar as a grant to 
Austin ivas concerned hut no further. In view of the special 
merit and the equitable reasons that surrounded Austin's 
case, his grant or concession was ratified, but the Emperor's 
decree did not put the law into general effect or permit 
other colonial grants. 

Now at last it seemed that Austin 's hopes were realized, 
and again he Avas ready to start to the north, but before 
he could get out of the city, the fall of Iturbede's Govern- 
ment was manifest. 



51 



Austin's Grant Confirmed 

Santa Anna, Bravo and others had begun a revolution 
against the Empire which was thundering away in many 
parts of Mexico. On the 19th of February, the very next 
day after Austin got his decree, Ilerrera, his friend and 
counselor, and who stood high in the Emperor's Government, 
fled from the city in the night and joined the revolution. 
Before Austin could get away, the storm broke in all its 
f iu\y and on the 21st of February, 1823, Augustin, Emperor 
of Mexico and Grand Master of the Imperial Order of 
Guadaloupe, who had a few short months before entered 
the city in a blaze of glory, mounted upon a black charger, 
and had received from the first Alcalde a golden ke}- upon 
a silver platter, marched out the Puebla Road never to re- 
turn. 



Austin's Grant Confinned. 

The fall of the Empire left Austin in much uncertainty 
as to the status of the colonization law and of his grant. 
The Junta Instituyente had passed it on the 14th of Jan- 
uary and the Emperor had approved it in so far as Austin's 
concession was concerned on February 18, but no man knew 
what the status of any of the legislative or executive acts 
of the late Government would be upon the incoming of the 
new regime. There was nothing that Austin could do but 
watch and wait. Still more of the members of the American 
colony who were there urging their claims for grants be- 
came discouraged and went away. 

In March, the National Congress met, the same which on 
the last day of the previous October had been dissolved by 
the Emperor under the ten minute order. One of the first 
acts of the new session was to nullify everything that had 
been done during the enforced recess of the Congress. A 



52 



Austin's Grant Confirmed 

triumvirate was named and vested with supreme power. 
Austin lost no time in presenting himself again to the new 
Congress. He had now become almost a perpetual petition- 
er. Governments had risen and fallen so rapidly during 
his stay in the city that one could scarcely keep account of 
the swift changes, but he found some of his old friends in 
the new session, with whom he had labored on the colonial 
committee at the previous session. In course of time the 
law which had been passed by the Emperor's Junta In- 
stituyente was resurrected and the new congressional com- 
mittee determined to approve it far enough to authorize 
Austin's concession, and then suspend it as to all other ap- 
plicants until further notice. Both Congress and the new 
executive triumvirate approved the concession to Austin 
that had been made by the late Emperor in the preceding 
Februar}^, their approval being given April 14, 1823. The 
concession to Austin thus finall}^ approved by the National 
Government was the first, last and only national grant ever 
made to lands in Texas. After this concession was approved 
it was the policy of the National Government to place upon 
the Mexican States the responsibility of colonial legislation, 
and under the system subseciuently adopted all future 
grants were made by the legislature of the State of Coahuila 
and Texas. Thus for the fourth time in two years Austin 
had seen the ever-changing Governments approve his con- 
cession, and he hurried out of Mexico, and remembering 
the fate of Lot's wife, did not dare look back for fear that 
he w^ould see another revolution on the horizon, and indeed 
he did live to see many more, though his career was brief. 
Many strange and adventurous characters had foregathered 
in the Mexican Capital in those days, lured by the hope of 
getting grants similar to that made to the Austins. 



53 



Austin's Grant Confirmed 

"When Stephen first reached the city in April, 1822, he 
found a group of this gentry, some of whom remained dur- 
ing the entire time that he was there. Among them were 
Haden Edwards, a prodigal Kentuckian who afterwards 
made history and trouble in and about Nacogdoches ; Green 
DeWitt, who in later years founded DeWitt's Colon}^ on the 
Guadaloupe; General James Wilkinson, who at one time 
had been Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United 
States, and whose name has always been more or less mixed 
with Aaron Burr in his supposed conspiracy. But the most 
pathetic of all the supplicants w-ho gathered there was a 
committee of Cherokee Chiefs who came from East Texas 
to urge their claims upon the new Government, and to bog 
a home for their wandering people. The Cherokees were 
a relatively docile and semi-civilized people, who at one 
time had occupied a vast region from Virginia to Georgia, 
but who had been driven west of the jMississippi. These 
poor people had come to know that a man must have some 
kind of a paper title in order to hold land, and they con- 
ceived the idea that if they could get a grant from the 
jMexican Government that they might hold their hunting 
grounds in the land where they had located north of the 
old San Antonio Road and east of the Trinity. There is 
yet in existence a pitiful letter written by Richard Fields, 
Chief of the Cherokees, voicing their woes. It is interesting, 
yet pathetic, when we reflect that it comes from a people 
lately and rightfully lords of the continent. It is so unique 
that this generation might well read it, the last wail of a 
now vanished race : 

''Feburey the fust Day 1822 Apacation mad to Sub- 
sprem Governer of Provunce of Spain. 

''Dieor Sur I wish to fall at your feet and omblay ask 
you what must be Dun with us pur Indians. We have som 



54 



The Terms of the First Grant 

Grants that was give us when we live under the Spanish 
Govt and we wish you to send us news by next mal whether 
tha will be reberst or not and if wer committed we will 
com as soon as posble to persent ourselves befor you in a 
manner agreeable to our talants, etc. 

''Richard filds 
''A Chaf of Charkee Nation/' 

But the Chief of the Cherokees, Edwards, DeAVitt and 
the various other applicants who presented their claims at 
Mexico during these troubled times, were made to await the 
colonization law passed the next year, 1824, and only 
Austin, out of all the petitioners, was permitted to enter. 

The Terms of the First Grant. 

A study of the first Mexican colonization law finally 
passed by Iturbede's Junta in 1823, though subsequently 
suspended, is one of the most interesting chapters in Texas 
history. It never actually became operative, but it formed 
the groundwork of subsequent legislation covering land 
grants during the whole colonial period. Many of the 
terms and expressions found in the act of 1823 have come 
down to us as household words. 

Governor Martinez had no instructions from any supe- 
rior authority giving detail as to the lands Austin could 
offer his colonists. In fact this subject never seemed to 
have been considered in the earlier correspondence or at 
any time prior to Stephen Austin's first visit to San Antonio 
in August, 1821. Martinez at that time asked Austin to 
outline a plan for distribution of land, and he proposed 
for each single man or head of a famih% a section one mile 
square, or 640 acres, and 320 acres additional for the wife, 



35 



The Terms of the First Grant 

160 additional for each child, and 80 for each slave. Mar- 
tinez acquiesced in this -proposal, and Austin seems to have 
had no doubt as to its authenticity, and advertised it ex- 
tensively, and this was the bounty' which the first colonists 
expected. When ^lartinez reported these things to the 
Superior Commandant at the City of IMexico the question 
was at once raised as to his authority to make this arrange- 
ment, and the Governor urged Austin to go on to IMexico 
and straighten the matter out when the latter reached San 
Antonio the second time in IMarch, 1822, All of the va- 
rious Governments and Departments of Governments wdth 
whom Austin dealt during the more than one 3^ear he re- 
mained in the City of iMexico on his first visit declined 
to ratify IMartinez's agreement as to the quantity of land, 
though they were all w^illing to recognize the merits of Aus- 
tin's claim, and anxious to facilitate him in carrying out 
his colonial scheme. This promised to embarrass Austin 
very much, as his word had gone out to his colonists, and 
his plan had been widely advertised in the United States. 
He urged and explained these things to the colonial com- 
mittee of the first Congress, and yet it was obdurate in 
refusing to accede to his wishes. The colonial committee 
named the labor, Avhich was a surve}^ 1,000 varas square 
and containing 177 acres, as the unit of quantity. This 
quantity was the amount to be assigned to each person who 
proposed to engage in agriculture. It was explained to the 
committee that this would be inadequate for those who pro- 
posed to engage in stock raising as well, and some ingenious 
person made a motion that the act be so drafted as to permit 
a larger quantity to be given to those who proposed to be- 
come herdsmen and engage in the ancient avocation of 
stock raising. This suggestion found favor, and the act 
was so drawn that while a person who would engage in 



56 



The Terms of the First Gr.\nt 

farming alone should be given a labor and no more, yet if 
the colonist also contemplated stock raising he should have 
in addition to his labor a sitio or a league of land, as 
Ave have come to call it. It may be remarked in pass- 
ing that Austin's colonists all seem to have been stock 
raisers and took the league along with the labor. 
They developed a wonderful predilection for this pastoral 
profession. There is much humor in this situation. Aus- 
tin urged the colonial committee to ratify a plan under 
which he had offered 640 acres of land to each head of fam- 
ily, and a possible additional quantity of several hundred 
acres which in no event could amount to more than half a 
league, and though the committee stubbornly refused to 
authorize such an arrangement, it nevertheless provided for 
a plan by which each colonist could and practically all of 
them did get a league and labor. He asked for a sec- 
tion and they gave him a league. In fact the act Avas so 
drawn that if the colonist proposed to raise much stock, he 
could have more than a league, and in many instances 
two leagues and even larger grants were made. The John 
Austin survey, upon which a ver}^ large portion of the City 
of Houston is located, is a two league grant, and AVilliam 
Morton, whose headright lay on the Brazos opposite the 
City of Richmond, had a two league grant. There were 
many such in the Colon}'. 

There were many other interesting provisions in the 
law of 1823, not the least of which was one regulating 
slavery which provided, "after the publication of this law, 
there can be no sale or purchase of the slaves which may 
be introduced into the Empire, and the children of slaves 
born in the Empire shall be free at fourteen years of age." 

This act of 1823 is the one which was finished all but 
three sections on the last day of October, 1822, when the 

57 



Austin's Great Achievement 

Emperor dissolved Congress under his emergency order. 
It was completed and adopted by Iturbede's Junta in Jan- 
uary, 1823, and sanctioned by him in February. The 
Congress which assembled on the fall of the Empire in 
March thereafter first revoked this law by general order, 
then recognized it for the purpose of confirming the grant 
to Austin, then suspended it after ratifying Austin's con- 
cession under it with the notation, ''that hereafter said 
colonization law i3assed by the Junta Instituyente shall be 
suspended until a new resolution on the subject." 

This new resolution on the subject was a national coloni- 
zation law passed in 1824. It will be seen, therefore, that 
the law of 1823, with its unusual stormy career at birth, 
all but passed in October, adopted in January following, 
ratified by the Emperor in February, set aside by the ten- 
minute Congress in J\Iarch, reaffirmed by the same Congress 
in April, in order to authorize Austin 's grant, suspended by 
the same Congress immediately after Austin's concession 
was adopted, and thereafterwards postponed, though it 
never became a general law, nevertheless constituted the 
framework of subsequent Mexican legislation, and its pro- 
visions had a material bearing upon all of the Texas 
colonies. 



Austin's Great Achievement. 

One cannot follow the course of events just narrated 
without developing the greatest admiration for Austin 
and the highest respect for his character and genius. 

He went to Mexico in April, 1822, without money, with- 
out acquaintances, unable to speak the language, and even 
robbed of his Spanish grammar, and at a turbulent time 
when no man's mind was normal. He found the city full 



58 



Austin's Great Achievement 

of adventurers using influence and intrigue to get colonial 
concessions in Texas. Without any of these blandishments, 
he alone succeeded. Every department of every Govern- 
ment which he approached during the many changes of the 
eventful year, heard him with approval and ultimately 
granted his concession. At the time he reached the City 
of Mexico, he was only twenty-eight years old. He had 
left school at seventeen, and when scarcely twenty-one 
had been elected a member of the Legislature of Mis- 
souri Territory, in which body he had served for six 
years. 

In 1820 he was appointed Federal Judge in Arkansas, 
and in 1821 was about to engage in a newspaper venture in 
New Orleans, when called to take up his father's enter- 
prise. There was nothing in his education and training 
which fitted him for the unusual mission upon which he 
went to the City of iMexico. When he rode north in 
April, 1823, with his grant finally approved, he was not 
yet thirty, but all other suitors who had not abandoned 
the quest remained behind to await later legislation. No 
greater tribute to Austin's genius can be paid than by the 
simple recital of these historical facts. 

Governor Martinez, in August, 1821, sent Austin away 
into the Gulf Coast country with a wave of the hand to find 
a location for his Colony along the Colorado River. 
There was much discussion between Austin and the au- 
thorities in Mexico while he was there in 1822-28 as to 
what should be the boundaries of his first Colony. It was 
finally settled in the Emperor's decree of the 18th of Feb- 
ruary, and later approved by the Congress as follows : 

''With respect to the demarkation of limits for tlio new 
establishment described by Austin in his memorial, the 
council are of the opinion that it need not be granted be- 



59 



Austin's Great Achievement 

cause there is not sufficient data to ascertain the extent of 
the territory and because the Colony will be composed of 
the land g'ranted in full property to the colonists." 

In other words, the lands granted to the individual set- 
tlers wherever thej^ might locate would constitute the ex- 
tent of the first colonial grant. Three hundred and seven 
separate colonial land grants were made under this decree, 
and they were scattered over the wide area now known as 
the following counties: Fayette, Burleson, Austin, 
Washington, AValler, Grimes, Harris, Chambers, Fort 
Bend, Brazoria, jMatagorda, AVharton, Colorado and 
Brazos. The outside limits of this territory are as 
wide as the boundaries of the State of ]\Iassachusetts, 
and show the aversion that our ancestors had against 
being crowded. The only limitation imposed was a 
restriction against any grant within the "littoral border" 
or within ten leagues of the Gulf Coast. None of the 
grants of the first Colony were within this zone. It was 
reserved from settlement for the time being with the idea 
that the Government should control the coast line. This 
policy was relaxed a few years later, and Austin's fourth 
Colony covered the entire Gulf littoral from the Lavaca to 
the San Jacinto. It is evident now when looking back upon 
events which transpired one hundred years ago, that but 
for two things there would have been no colonial grant 
prior to the national law of 1824, and possibly not then. 
There is even a possibility that there would have been no 
national law authorizing colonization but for the influences 
which brought about the first concession. These two things 
were: First, the character and personality of Austin and 
the great impression he made upon all the official bodies 
with which he came in contact during his year's stay in the 
Capital. 



60 



Austin's Great Achievement 

Second, there was a spirit of fairness involved which these 
Governments were willing to recognize. The Spanish 
sovereignty had made a concession to Austin and his fa- 
ther which he had spent a year in fulfillirig. It was far 
performed on his part and his reputation and fortune were 
wrecked if it were not carried out. The :\Iexican officials 
manifested a spirit of fairness and equity toward Austin 
in these matters which is indeed commendable. The other 
would-be Empresarios who haunted the ante-chambers 
of these ^Mexican Governments did not inspire so much 
confidence, nor did they have any claims upon the Gov- 
ernment as Austin did. There was even in those days a 
current of grave suspicion among many jMexican leaders 
against the wisdom of allowing colonists from the United 
States to settle in Texas, and looking back upon the situ- 
ation now^ one is led to wonder at the great stupidity of 
the IMexican Governments in ever permitting this move- 
ment. In less than six years from this very time 
Mexican leaders boldly spoke out against it and would 
have undone all that had been done, if it were possible. 
Had it not been for the ever-recurrent revolutions which 
followed each other in Mexico during these years, it is 
more than likely that the first Colony would have been 
wiped out long before it reached a point where it could 
maintain itself. 

It was manifest to those IMexican leaders who gave the 
subject much thought that these American colonists could 
never become Mexicans, either in sentiment, politics or re- 
ligion, and these thoughts may well have turned the scale 
against colonization entirely but • for the great interest 
and confidence that Austin inspired and the masterful way 
in wdiich he urged the justice of a ratification of his first 
concession. His name and influence and character gave 



61 



The First Colonists 

a coloring as it were to the whole colonial scheme, and in 
the wake of his coming the other Empresarios crept in. 
And now, after the lapse of one hundred years, it is not 
too much to say that the hand of Stephen F. Austin, raised 
at this time and under the circumstances here detailed, de- 
termined the fate of all the country north of the Rio 
Grande, and that Texas and the Western States were to be 
Saxon rather than Latin. This is not merely fulsome 
praise. It is rather a tardy acknowledgment of the real 
merit and great work of this remarkable man. 

Surel}^ very few men in American history have wrought 
so much, and his achievements and their effect upon our 
histor}^ class him as a national figure — a national hero. 

The First Colonists. 

The first colonial grant to Austin, of February 18, 1823, 
afterwards confirmed by the ten-minute congress on April 
14, 1823, directed him to collaborate with the Governor of 
Texas or a Commissioner appointed by the Governor, to 
designate and divide the land among the colonists. Austin 
was authorized to locate a town at a place central to the col- 
onists, which should serve as the Seat of Government for 
the Colony. Above all, the colonists must be Roman Cath- 
olics of steady habits. This was supposed to be indispensable. 
He was authorized to organize the colonists into a militia, 
and until the Government was further organized, he was 
charged with the administration of justice, a settlement of 
all differences which might arise among the inhabitants, and 
the preservation of good order and tranquillity. It must 
be remembered that this first grant, with its broad powers 
conferred upon Austin, was made before the Mexican Con- 
stitution of 1824, and more than three years before there 



62 



The First Colonists 

was a Constitutional State Government for Coahuila and 
Texas. 

Austin stopped at Monterey on his return, for a confer- 
ence with the State authorities, and was designated as a 
Lieutenant Colonel, and was afterwards known as Colonel 
Austin, until he was elected Commander-in-Chief of the 
colonial forces at Gonzales, in 1835, after which he was 
called General Austin. 

The Governor of Coahuila and Texas, Don Luciaiio Gar- 
cia, appointed that genial soldier of fortune the Baron de 
Bastrop Commissioner to issue the titles to the colonists, 
and in 1823, Austin and Bastrop arrived in the Colony. 
This same Don Luciano issued a letter of instructions to 
Bastrop on July 23rd, asking him to locate and lay out 
the town called to be established in the colonial concession, 
and named San Felipe de Austin. 

During the year w^hich lapsed since the first colonists ar- 
rived, and while Austin was in Mexico, some progress had 
been made toward permanent settlements. Emigrants had 
come singly and in companies, by land and by sea, and had 
squatted at various places, from LaGrange to the mouth 
of the San Jacinto. There is a poetic interest when one 
reflects upon the prospect which confronted these ances- 
tors of ours, as they wearily wended their way into a vast, 
strange, virgin land and selected sites for their homes, 
as convenience, or fancy, or accident suggested. One 
family would be attracted by a beautiful grove, another by 
a charming landscape. All of them kept an eye single to 
fertile lands and gravitated to the alluvial river fronts. 
One hardy Tennesseean, who had come overland nearly a 
thousand miles, stopped on the Brazes early in 1822, and 
was about to make his permanent location. After a few 
days, he heard that a fellow from Alabama had located five 



63 



The Pirst Colonists 

miles below him, and in disgust at such unseemly crowd- 
ing, he folded his tent and moved across to the Colorado. 

The details of surveying and locating the lands and is- 
suing the titles called for a vast amount of work. The 
names of Samuel M. Williams and Horatio Chrisman should 
ever be remembered in connection w^ith the location of the 
first Colony. Williams came from Maryland, in 1822, and 
in his application for a land grant it is recited that he 
spoke both the Spanish and French languages, as well as 
the English. He was made Secretary of Austin's Colony 
and labored with Austin throughout all the colonial period. 
The volumes of land records made during these years were 
all in AVilliams' handwriting. Chrisman and Ingram and 
the other surveyors who made the first locations would write 
their field notes as the work progressed, in English. These 
field notes were often written on odd scraps of paper. But 
before the grant could issue, the field notes had to be trans- 
lated into Spanish and all of the official records, including 
the grants themselves, were in the Spanish. Williams, 
h')wever, preserved the original field notes, and they have 
been bound into a volume, which has been kept even unto 
this day. 

The first survey in the Colony is said to have been the 
one made for Josiah H. Bell, on the west side of the Brazos, 
a few miles below the La Bahia road. This work was done 
on the tent]i of February, 1823, by Horatio Chrisman. In- 
gram's first survey was made for Sylvanus Castleman, on 
the w^est side of the Colorado. 

The first year in the Colony was a very hard one, and 
this eight-cylindered generation can never know the hard- 
ships and privations which these people suffered. Many 
families were without bread until the first corn crop Avas 
matured. The talented Horatio Chrisman Avore a leather 



64 



The Government of the First Colony 

hunting jacket all summer because he had no shirt. The 
family of William Morton lived largely on lettuce for 
months. But the mustang ponies were fat and more eas- 
ily killed than deer and meat was reasonably abundant. 

The Government of the First Colony. 

While Austin was yet in Mexico in 1822, the first colonists 
having settled on the Colorado and Brazos Rivers, Governor 
Trespalacios, who had succeeded the Spanish Governor, 
Martinez, took authority to divide the new Colony into two 
districts, that of the Colorado and of the Brazos, and named 
an Alcalde for each district. This was the first political 
recognition of the new Colony, and James Cummings, Pro- 
visional Alcalde of Colorado, appointed by Don Felix Tres- 
palacios, in 1822, was the first Anglo-American civil officer 
ever named in Texas. 

When Austin and Bastrop returned to the State in 
1823, a letter had preceded them from Saucedo at Bexar, 
advising the Alcaldes of the appointment of Bastrop. 
The letter to Alcalde Cummings is printed among Aus- 
tin's papers and directs him to assemble his people at 
the house of Sylvanus Castleman, on the Colorado, to 
hear instructions regarding the grant to Austin and 
Austin's authority. The Alcalde is a petty Spanish judi- 
cial officer. The office is one of great antiquity and the 
Alcalde is supposed to be as indispensable to a Spanish 
community as a justice of the peace is found in an English 
neighborhood. 

Austin accepted the Alcalde arrangements made for him 
in advance, and set about the location of his Capital and 
the promulgation of a civil and criminal code, which were 
published in 1824. These codes, entirely written by him, 

65 



The Government of the First Colony 

remained the law of the Colonies, until the first Ayunta- 
mientos were established in 1828 and Constitutional Alcaldes 
chosen. His criminal code consisted of twenty-six articles, 
and is dated January 22, 1824. The five first articles are 
devoted to the proper handling of Indians, and provide 
that if Indians are found in a neighborhood and their con- 
duct leads to the suspicion that they intend to steal, they 
should be apprehended and taken before the nearest Al- 
calde, who is given power to punish them if he deems it 
necessary. Article five concludes the treatise on Indians,' 
in this unique language : 

"No person in the colony shall ill treat or abuse any 
Indian without just cause, under a penalty of one hundred 
dollars, but shall treat them at all times iu a friendly 
manner, so long as they deserve it." 

After thus disposing of the Indian question, the law-giver 
proceeds in article six to fix the status of other criminals, 
making it the duty of all persons to apprehend them be- 
fore an Alcalde. If the criminal makes a resistance, it is 
lawful to kill him. Gambling of every description is pro- 
hibited under a heavy fine, but horse racing, ''being cal- 
culated to improve the breed of horses, ' ' is not classified as 
gambling. 

In article nine he made it a high misdemeanor for a 
man and woman to live together without being married, 
but suspended this section until sixty days after the arri- 
val of the first priest, who was expected to take up his 
residence in the Colony in due time. 

Five sections of the penal code were devoted to offences 
concerning slaves and slavery and by slaves, and it was 
made a heavy offence to steal a slave. The code named the 
crimes of theft, assault, slander, counterfeiting, and pro- 
vided for a jury trial in the Alcalde's Court. All fines col- 



66 



The Government of the First Colony 

lected were to go to the benefit of a school fund and other 
public purposes. 

This miniature code, promulgated by Austin in Jan- 
uary, 1824, was the law of the land for more than four 
years, and is interesting as the first English code ever 
written in Texas. 

In his civil code, Austin provided for a constable in 
each district, to serve the process of the Alcaldes. Here 
was a rare blending of the English and Latin forms of 
jurisprudence. Think of an English Constable serving 
the process of a Spanish Alcalde. The civil code provides 
for the form of the Alcalde's docket, and there are yet 
in existence a number of these old dockets, which bear some 
very interesting recitals. I have examined the old Al- 
calde registers of Brazoria, which bear the names of the 
attorneys who practiced in those remote days, and fre- 
quently among them appear such names as John A. Whar- 
ton, R. J. Townes, Elisha M. Pease, and others afterwards 
well known in the early history of Texas. 

The twenty-third section of the civil code provides that 
in case no property of a debtor can be found by the Con- 
stable, that his body should be seized and the Alcalde 
should examine into his circumstances, and in case it should 
be found that he had fraudulently conveyed away or con- 
cealed his property, then the Alcalde may hire out the de- 
fendant to the highest bidder, until his wages pay the debt. 

During these four years, Austin's life was an extremely 
busy one. In a sketch recently written by Eugene Barker, 
the following glimpse is given of his unusual activities: 

' ' It would be impossible to exaggerate Austin 's labors in 
the early years of the Colony. A letter to the political 
chief, in 1826, gives a clue to their character and variety. 
He had left San Felipe on April fourth, to point out some 

67 



The Government of the First Colony 

land recently conceded to one of the State officials, and 
had been detained by excessive rains and swollen streams, 
until the twenty-ninth. On IMay first, he began the trial 
of an important case, that lasted seven days. At the same 
time, he had to entertain a delegation of Tonkaway In- 
dians and make preparations for a campaign against another 
tribe; to talk to and answer questions of many foreigners 
who had come to look at the country, explaining and trans- 
lating the Federal Constitution and laws for them; to re- 
ceive and pass upon applications for land, hear reports and 
issue instructions to surveyors; and to correspond with 
superior civil and military officers at San Antonio and 
IMonterey. ]\Iuch of his time was consumed in settling 
neighborhood disputes about cows and calves. During 
these years, he gathered, by painstaking surveys and per- 
sonal observation, data for a map of Texas, published by 
Tanner, in 1829, charted Galveston Bay and the harbors 
and navigable rivers of the State, promoted trade with 
the United States, and kept a stream of immigrants flowing 
into tlie Colony; encouraged the erection of gins and saw 
mills and the establishment of schools; exercised through- 
out a most remarkable influence over the legislature at 
Saltillo, in matters affecting the interests of the colonists." 

In addition to the affairs of his own Colony, he was 
called upon in every critical situation that arose in the 
other Colonies, and especially De Witt's and Edwards' 
Colonies. His high standing with the Mexican officials and 
the great deference they paid him gave him an influence 
that was sought, not only by his own colonists, but all other 
Empresarios. He established the Seat of Government for 
his Colony at a site located on the Brazos River, now in 
Austin County. A tentative location was first made on the 
Colorado, where Columbus now stands, but this was aban- 



68 



Empresario Grants 

doiied for San Felipe, and a t'ive-lea«]^ue p:rant of land was 
made by the Mexiean Government, on wliieli to locate 
the town. San Felipe remained tlie seat oi" (Jovei-nmeiit 
until tlie advance of Santa Anna's ai-juy in IHIiG. 



Empresario Gra nis. 

The word ('inj)resario means contractor, and was ap- 
plied to those who were given contracts to locate col- 
onics in Texas. 

Austin's first grant was finally api)roved on the four- 
teenth day of April, ]823, but the same Act which ap- 
proved it provided that no other grant should be made until 
the passage of a State Colonization Law for Coahuila and 
Texas, and that all subsequent grants should emanate froin 
the State Government. The other Empresai-ios (or con- 
tractors) were therefore compelled to await tlie oi-ganiza- 
tion of the State Government. These would-be Knipresai-ios 
who foregathered at Mexico in 1821 migi'ated to Sidtillo, 
the little Capital of Coahuila, and in March, 1825, when 
the first State statute was passed authorizing such grants, 
there was no dearth of applicants at Saltillo. On the fif- 
teenth day of April, 1825, the first State grants were made. 
On that day. Green De Witt received the contract to locate 
four hundred families between the Guadaloupe and the 
Lavaca; Robert Leftwitch, four hundred families north of 
the San Antonio Road and between the Brazos and the Col- 
orado; Frost Thorne, four hundred families in East Texas. 
On the eighteenth, Ilayden Edwards, who had been wait- 
ing and watching four years for such a concession, had 
permission to locate four hundred families in Dust Texas, 
in the neighborhood of Nacogdoches. On the; tvv<'nty-sev- 
enth of the same month, Austin received a concession for 



69 



Empresario Grants 

his second Colony, which gave him permission to locate 
three hundred families, within the bounds already occupied 
by his scattered first colonists. 

Many other grants were made during this and succeed- 
ing years, so that between 1825, when the Land Office was 
opened at Saltillo, and 1835, when, it was closed by the 
Revolution, there had been thirty-two grants, covering al- 
most the entire territory now^ embraced by the State of 
Texas. The great majority of them were never fulfilled. Aus- 
tin afterwards received two other colonial grants, his third 
Colony covering the territory between the Brazos and the 
San Jacinto. During the first few years, no grants were 
made within the Gulf littoral, which included a strip ten 
leagues in width, from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the 
Sabine. When Austin came to locate his fourth Colon}^, 
however, he got permission to locate it entirely within this 
Gulf littoral and it extended from the mouth of the Lavaca 
to the mouth of the San Jacinto. Of all the other Empre- 
sario grants that were made during these years, only those 
to Austin were entirely fulfilled. De "Witt's was probably 
more nearly fulfilled than any of the others. 

Martin DeLeon, a Mexican, procured permission in 1825 
to locate a Colony, and did locate it, founding the City of 
Victoria, w^hich was settled at first by Mexican colonists. 

McMullen and McGloynes procured a grant, between the 
Nueces and San Antonio Rivers, south of the San Antonio 
Road, and located an Irish Colony there. Some of these 
grants w^re early forfeited and re-locations made. Many 
of them were made the basis of wild land speculation in the 
United States. 

Three large contiguous grants, covering practically all 
of Southeast Texas east of the San Jacinto River, were 
made to Burnet, Yehlein and De Zavala. The land cov- 



70 



The Fredonians 

ered by these grants extended from Galveston Bay along 
the Sabine River to the Nacogdoches Road, and Burnet's 
grant lay north of that road. The three grants embraced 
1000 leagues, a territory almost as vast as one of the 
Southern States. These gentlemen conveyed their holdings 
to trustees, among whom were William IT. Sumner, of 
Boston, United States Senator from Massachusetts; and a 
Company was formed, known as the Galveston Bay and 
Texas Land Company, which took the title of the Em- 
presarios to the property, and stock was issued and offered 
for sale. They procured the opinion of no less an authority 
than Chancellor Kent as to the validity of these grants, and 
their plan of operation, and started on a scheme of rather 
wild land speculation. Austin protested very bitterly 
against these things. It created a bad impression in Mexico. 
He had started out to bring in bona fide colonists, people 
who would settle and develop the country. This land specu- 
lation, which began as early as 1826, is often given as one 
of the causes of the Revolution. 

The Fredonians. 

Hay den Edwards was in Mexico, seeking a grant, when 
Austin went there in 1821. Yoakum says of him that he 
kept open house and entertained very lavishly. It appears 
from Austin's correspondence some years later that Ed- 
wards operated a roulette wheel in this open house, which 
probably increased the lavishness of his entertainments. 
Edwards was an impetuous, quick tempered person, the 
very kind of a man that would not be calculated to get 
along well with Spaniards or Mexicans. He made his 
headquarters at Nacogdoches, where he found a very small 
remnant of a town which had thrived there years before, 

71 



The Fredonians 

but had been destroyed in 1818. When Austin came there 
in 1821 the town contained but half a dozen houses and 
thirty or forty inhabitants. The news of the opening of 
Texas to American emigrants, however, caused a great in- 
flux of people into all East Texas, and Nacogdoches soon 
became a relatively important place. 

During 1825 and 1826, there was a gathering of renegade 
Mexicans in East Texas and about Nacogdoches — refugees 
who had left Mexico for its good — and the same class of 
gentry from the States soon foregathered there and formed 
a congenial society for evil. Edwards and his emigrants 
soon came into conflict with this element, and as is usually 
the case, there was a harmony between the bad elements, 
both American and Mexican, which came into direct an- 
tagonism with Edwards and his well-meaning colonists. 
Nacogdoches was the only place in Texas, except San An- 
tonio, where there was any Mexican population worth men- 
tioning, and of course the only jjlace where there could be 
any friction between the inhabitants and the newcomers. 
That such friction was inevitable must have been ap- 
parent to everyone, and that it manifested itself at the very 
beginning is but natural. 

A Mexican rogue named Sepulveda, more or less skilled 
in forgeries in general and in land forgeries in particular, 
and an American rogue named Norris, skilled in many 
forms of villainy, conspired together so that Norris was 
chosen Alcalde of the new settlement. 

Edwards, with a frankness, and in good English, informed 
Governor Blanco at San Antonio of the deeds and mis- 
deeds of Sepulveda and his gang. Governor Blanco thought 
a bad Mexican was much better than a good American, 
and on this score sided with the renegades and cancelled 
Edwards' Empresario grant and expelled him from the 



72 



The Fredonians * 

Colony. Colonists were coming in in great numbers to lo- 
cate under Edwards' concession and he had spent almost 
a fortune in the enterprise, and this turn of affairs meant 
his ruin.. He and his brother, Benjamin, determined to defy 
Blanco's authority, and on December 16, 1826, Benjamin 
Edwards rode into Nacogdoches and declared the exist- 
ence of the Republic of Fredonia, and unfurled its flag, 
in the grim wake of a Texas norther, which howled in the 
East Texas pines that night. 

In desperation for an ally in this emergency, the Ed- 
wards turned to the Cherokee Indians, who dwelt in the 
woods north of the San Antonio-Xacogdoches Road, and 
an offensive and defensive alliance was formed, by which 
the Fredonians and the Cherokees were to work their inde- 
pendence and then divide East Texas equally. 

There was a rather celebrated globe trotter named John 
Dunn Hunter, whose journeys and voyages through the 
world had been more thrilling, if possible, than those of 
Sinbad the Sailor. At this particular time, he was in some 
way connected with the Mexican Government, as an agent 
among the Cherokees. Hunter and Richard Fields, the 
Cherokee Chief, manipulated this new alliance with the 
Fredonians. 

Austin had foreseen this trouble and as early as March 
of this j^ear, 1826, he had written Edwards a long, scathing 
letter, frankly telling him that his course of dealing and his 
indiscreet utterances would get him into serious trouble. 
After reviewing various rumors as to Edwards' doings and 
sayings, the young Empresario warned the old man thus: 
"One moment's reflection will show you the imprudence 
and impropriety of such utterances as those attributed to 
you." Edwards and those associated with him, foreseeing 
this crisis, had sent letters to manv influential men in Aus- 



73 



The Fredonian Rebellion 

tin's Colony, urging them to join in resistance to Mex- 
ican authority, and most of these letters had been for- 
warded to Austin, or called to his attention. Austin knew 
the utter folly of Edwards' course, and foresaw that if any 
suspicion attached to him or his colonists, that the whole 
colonial scheme would be wiped out. He therefore used 
every endeavor, not only to suppress the rebellion, but to 
show the Mexican authorities that he was in accord with 
them, and that he had no sympathy with the Fredonian 
movement. 



The Fredonian Rehellion. 

When news of the arrival of Edwards, with his Fre- 
donian army of fifteen persons, was carried to the au- 
thorities in Mexico, there was a great hurrying to and fro, 
and military preparations to suppress the rebellion were 
begun on a large scale. It was confidently believed by 
the people of Mexico, and by many of the Mexican leaders, 
that this was the first effort of the United States of the 
North, as they called our country, to claim Texas, and 
they confidently believed that they would be at war with 
the United States, as soon as their forces reached Texas. 

The Mexican Congress voted a large sum of money to de- 
fray the expenses of the campaign and an expedition of 
troops was arranged to be sent by Vera Cruz, to land in 
Galveston Bay and march overland to Nacogdoches. Ar- 
rangements were put on foot to send an army across the 
Rio Grande. Long before these ambitious plans were under 
way, however, the rebellion had collapsed with its own 
weight and under the pressure of the local military au- 
thorities. 



74 



The Fredonian Rebellion 

Colonel Ellis P. Beau, -who had come into Texas with 
Nolan in 1812, and who had spent several of the interven- 
ing years in a Mexican dungeon, and had in this way be- 
come a naturalized Mexican citizen, resided near Nacog- 
doches in those days. The story of Bean is an interesting 
and romantic one, but I will not stop to relate it here. He 
carried the title of Colonel of Militia under the Mexican 
Government, and had authority to look after matters per- 
taining to the Indians. Being an American, he was mis- 
trusted by the Mexican authorities, and being a ]\Iexican 
official, he was mistrusted by the American colonists. But 
Colonel Bean assumed authority to take action against the 
Fredonian rebels and moved on to Nacogdoches. 

Saucedo, the Mexican Political Chief at Bexar, sent a 
detachment of two hundred men by way of San Felipe. 
From San Felipe, and after a conference with Austin, Sau- 
cedo issued a mighty manifesto to the colonists, reviewing 
the entire Nacogdoches trouble and advising that on the 
morrow, January 22nd, 1827, he would march on to Nac- 
ogdoches. Austin felt that the fate of his Colony was at 
stake and that if there was the least suspicion of his loyalty, 
or his sympathy with Edwards, that all was lost. There 
were no more than a thousand American families in all 
Texas at that time, and the destruction of the entire colo- 
nial venture would have been an easy matter. Then, too, 
Austin was under the deepest obligations to the ^Mexican 
Government. Whatever the treatment of Edwards might 
have been, yet the authorities at Mexico had been fair to 
Austin, and held him in high esteem. In order to give 
public evidence of his position in the matter, he raised a 
detachment of men from his Colony, to accompany Sau- 
cedo 's Army. In addition to this, Austin sent a commit- 
tee to Nacogdoches, composed of Richard Ellis, James 

75 



The Fredonian Rebellion 

Cummings and James Kerr, with instructions to investigate 
and report, and to use their influence to induce the revo- 
lutionists to forbear. Austin's committee made an inter- 
esting report, advising that they had met Edwards and 
John Dunn Hunter, and that they were unwilling to accept 
amnesty, but would insist upon absolute freedom of all the 
country north of the Rio Grande. 

On January 4th, before Saucedo's men, along with the 
colonial troops, could reach Nacogdoches, Alcalde Norris 
had raised an army of sixty-seven loyal men, and with 
this force marched into Nacogdoches to give battle to the 
Fredonian forces. The Fredonian army had disbanded 
for the day, not expecting any hostile activity, and when 
Alcalde Norris' army appeared, only eleven white men and 
nine Indians were available for defense. They rallied, how- 
ever, and defeated the Government forces, this being the 
only active engagement that was fought. One Fredonian 
was wounded and one of Norris' men killed. 

In the meantime Colonel Bean had started a counter in- 
trigue with the Cherokees. Austin and Saucedo wrote 
letters to Fields and Hunter, but these leaders were bent 
on revolution. Through Bean's influences, however, dis- 
sension was brought about among the Cherokees and they 
held a council of war and decided to rescind their late agree- 
ments with the Fredonians and ally themselves with the 
Mexican authorities, and as evidence of their good faith in 
this new alliance, they ruthlessly slew Dick Fields, the 
Cherokee Chief, and John Dunn Hunter, the celebrated 
globe trotter. 

After some skirmishing, and shorn of their Indian al- 
lies, the Fredonians fled, and the Mexican flag again 
floated at Nacogdoches. The revolution was at an end be- 



76 



The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion 

fore Sauceclo's army arrived, and that doughty warrior was 
denied the pleasure of military triumphs. 

Edwards and the Fredonians, and their premature, ill- 
starred revolution were gone, but like the song of John 
Brown of Osawatomie, their souls went marching on. Men 
of more judgment and discretion wrought what they so 
wildly aimed. 

The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion. 

The rise and fall of Fredonia, though apparently a small 
matter, of local significance only, was in fact far otherwise. 
It was the first skirmish in the trouble which ended at 
San Jacinto, to be renewed again in the ^Mexican war with 
the United States, twenty years later. Its importance was 
not overlooked at the time, either in the United States or 
Mexico. There were wild rumors all through ^Mexico that 
it was an instigation of the Government of the United 
States, with designs to claim the Rio Grande as a boundary. 
So strong was this feeling in IMexico that in 1827 Henry 
Clay, Secretary of State in the Cabinet of John Quincy 
Adams, addressed a letter to Obregon, the IMinister from 
Mexico to the United States, expressing regret at the occur- 
rence, and disavowing any sympathy with it. Mexico was 
so profoundly stirred that great preparations were made 
to invade Texas by land and by sea, for the purpose of 
putting down the Fredonians and warring with the peo- 
ple of the United States, whom they confidently believed 
would come into the fray. One thousand men were mar- 
shaled to come by sea, and ten thousand were designed 
to march overland. When the news of the fall of the Fre- 
donians was received in ]\Iexico, this contemplated army of 
invasion turned its attention to an internal revolution which 



77 



The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion 

was brewing. The strange aspect of the Mexican colonial 
policy, which invited and admitted people from the United 
States to settle in Texas, becomes stranger still when we 
fully understand the eternal feeling of suspicion and mis- 
trust which existed toward the United States in Mexico 
during these years, and one must candidly admit that sub- 
sequent events seemed to justify this suspicion. Those 
were the days when the Democratic party, committed to 
the domination of the slave-holding element in the South, 
was in the ascendancy, and destined to rule the fortunes 
of this country and shape its policies, until the outbreak of 
the Civil War, in the next generation. 

Within two years after the De Onis treaty was ratified 
Mexico achieved its independence, and the question arose 
whether it was bound by the treaty or could insist upon 
its recognition by the United States. Just how there could 
be any question about it, I cannot see, but nevertheless it 
seems to have been much debated and it was currently be- 
lieved in Mexico that the United States would make the 
contention that the Treaty was not binding upon it as 
against the new Mexican Nation, that country not having 
been a party to it. Then, too, there was a general feeling 
in the United States that in some way the Treaty would 
either be abrogated, or ignored and set aside, and the United 
States would acquire Texas. 

The very first Minister from Mexico to the United States, 
in 1822, discovered this feeling and hastened to warn his 
Government of it and to exaggerate it into a widespread 
conspiracy to occupy all the country north of the Rio 
Grande. As early as October, 1822, Zazaya, first Mexican 
Minister, wrote his Government, after he had been in the 
United States only a few weeks, that he had discovered am- 
bitious designs with reference to Texas, and this letter and 



78 



The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion 

similar warnings were in the hands of the Mexican officials 
when Iturbede and his committee, as well as the Ten-Min- 
ute Congress, approved Austin's first grant, in April, 1823. 
In that year, Torrens, who had become Mexican Minister 
at Washington, continued his warnings, and in August, 

1823, sent specific recommendations against allowing the 
American population to become predominant in Texas. 
These reports were so frequent and so alarming as to cause 
the Mexican Government to take urgent steps to have the 
De Onis Treaty so recognized as to make it binding on the 
United States and to work out the boundaries with great 
precision. 

On April 15, 1824, the Political Chief at San Antonio 
wrote to the Government at IMexico : ' ' The American Gov- 
ernment counts Texas its own and even included it on its 
maps, tracing its boundaries to the Rio Grande." Yet 
on this very day, April 15. 1824, the authorities at Sal- 
tillo granted Green DeWitt, Hayden Edwards and Frost 
Thorne vast colonial tracts, covering large portions of 
Texas. The fears of IMexico in this behalf were fanned into 
white heat by the Fredonian outbreak, and after it sub- 
sided, they were continuously kept aroused by repeated ef- 
forts of the United States to purchase Texas. From the 
beginning of the John Quincy Adams Administration, in 

1824, until th- Revolution, in 1836, the State Department 
at Washington never ceased its efforts to induce the various 
governments, which abode their destined hour in Mexico, 
to sell Texas. Joel Poinsett, our ^Minister to Mexico during 
the Adams Administration, was instructed to buy Texas, 
ancl Henry Clay, Secretary of State under Adams, wrote 
him volumes upon the subject. He was told to make an 
effort to get the Rio Grande as a boundary, failing in that 
to try for the Lavaca or the Nueces or the Colorado, or even 



79 



The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion 

the Brazos, and was given a scale of prices for these various 
boundaries ; but every offer made to every one of the rapidly 
changing Governments in Mexico was met by a flat refusal. 
At one time, Poinsett wrote Clay, in 1825, that if the 
United .States would let up on its efforts for a few years, 
the American settlers then pouring into Texas would be- 
come so boisterous and troublesome that IMexico might be 
more willing to sell Texas, to get rid of them. In one of 
Clay's letters to Poinsett, he suggested that it be called to 
Mexico's attention that the United States was better 
equipped to take care of the Comanche Indians than 
Mexico, and that if it acquired Texas, it would take it over, 
Indians and all, and would look after these troublesome 
people. 

With the incoming of the Jackson Administration, in 
1828, these activities were renew^ed and accelerated. Jack- 
son sent one Anthony Butler, of infamous memory, as Min- 
ister to Mexico, and he began a six-year course of treacher- 
ous intrigue which became the scandal of the day, all de- 
signed to beg, bribe or steal Texas away from the Mexican 
Federation. Mexican leaders during these years became al- 
most hysterical about the designs of the United States, and 
they had much indeed upon which to found their hysteria; 
but all of the time, new grants were being made to Em- 
presarios and the stream of colonists continued unabated, 
until 1830. Mexican papers from time to time published 
attacks on the Washington Government, and in the Mexi- 
can Congress it was openly charged that the United States 
and its people were natural and deadly enemies to Mexico, 
These contradictory things are hard to understand a hun- 
dred years after. 



80 



General Manuel Mier y Teran 

General Manuel Mier y Teran. 

There is an interesting and pathetic glimpse of the times, 
1828 to 1832, found in the biography of this brilliant and 
gifted man. General Teran had been a leader in the 
patriot cause during the war for independence, 1810 to 
1821, and followed the varying fortunes of the rebel army 
during these long, bitter years. He was a man of great 
intellect, splendidly educated and of sterling character. 
The earli(jr Texas historians have contented themselves 
with rude flings at Teran, and indeed he was not a prime 
favorite wdth the Texas colonists, but at this date we can 
look back upon his character and career and realize in him 
a really great and patriotic man, who tried to serve his 
country with as much fairness to the Texas colonists as 
seemed consistent with his own country's safety. 

When the boundary question with the United States be- 
came acute, the ^Mexican Congress passed numerous reso- 
lutions and acts and imposed treaties designed to adjust it, 
and a Commission was created, to go upon the ground and 
mark the boundary with proper monuments. In 1827, 
shortly after the Fredonian incident, General Teran was 
sent to Texas on this Commission. The purpose of his mis- 
sion, however, was much broader than the mere locating and 
marking of the Texas boundaries. Among the specific 
instructions that he is known to have received from the 
^Minister of Relations in the IMexican Cabinet, was to make 
a report upon the desirability of maintaining garrisons and 
troops at various points in Texas. He journeyed to Bexar 
and after a visit there, stopped for a time at San Felipe 
and visited other points in Austin's Colony. Here he 
formed an acquaintance and intimate friendship with 
Austin, wdio seems to have won Teran 's confidence and ad- 



81 



General Manuel Mier y Teran 

miration. From San Felipe, he proceeded on to Nacogdo- 
ches, where he tarried for some time and studied the local 
situation. 

General Teran wielded greater influence in Texas affairs 
than any other Mexican of his day, prior to Santa Anna, 
and his activities wrought much in our destiny. From the 
time of his visit to the date of his tragic death, in 1832, he 
was the eyes and ears and brains of Mexican officialdom in 
Texas. His reports to his Government about Texas form a 
chapter of intense interest and can be better understood 
now, in the light of subsequent events. Every law and de- 
cree, as well as every movement or policy towards or affect- 
ing Texas during these years emanated from him, or from 
suggestions and recommendations that he made to his Gov- 
ernment. At the time of his arrival at Nacogdoches, a 
small garrison was located there, under the command of 
Colonel Piedras, who had been stationed there in June, 
1827, after the Fredonian fiasco, to keep the peace and 
resist the aggressions of the United States of the North. 

Guadalupe Victoria was the first Constitutional President 
of Mexico, and Teran was his intimate friend. From Nac- 
ogdoches, Teran made a lengthy confidential report to 
Victoria, which is a very interesting and important docu- 
ment, showing a Mexican's insight into Texas affairs. One 
reading this letter sees in it seemingly strange contradic- 
tions, but they are the struggle of a strong man with a fate 
which he foresees, but will not admit. In his communica- 
tion he says that Mexican influence has about ceased in 
Texas, in fact that it is scarcely felt at all in East Texas, 
where the American population is both aggressive and 
thrifty, and the Mexicans poor and ignorant and the very 
lowest class. That the Americans maintain a school for 
their children, where they are taught in English, but there 



82 



General Manuel Mier y Teran 

is no school for Mexican children. That it would cause his 
enlightened countrymen chagrin to see the contempt in 
which Mexicans are held by the foreigners, who have never 
seen or known any other Mexicans save these low, ignorant 
and thriftless fellows about Nacogdoches. 

After recounting these things in great detail, he pro- 
ceeds thus: "I tell myself that it could not be otherwise 
but that from such a state of affairs an antagonism will arise, 
which is not the least of the smoldering fires which I have 
discovered. ' ' He then points out the governmental difficul- 
ties of the colonists and states their grievances fully and 
fairly, and suggests the location of an appellate court at 
Nacogdoches. He is free in his expressions of admiration 
for the honest, industrious colonists, and points to their 
love of land ownership as a "strong virtue," but he fore- 
saw the loss of Texas and made many suggestions to avert 
the disaster, which one can tell from his whole communica- 
tion he knew w^as inevitable. The most urgent of his sug- 
gestions was the strengthening of the Mexican colonies in 
Texas. 

During the next few years, Teran was Comandante 
General of the Eastern Provinces of Mexico, which included 
Texas, and he kept an eternal vigil on Texas and the Tex- 
ans. In 1829, he wrote his Government (a revolution had 
changed its personnel in the interim), giving his grave sus- 
picions as to the intentions of the United States. In this 
letter, he suggests that the Empresarios are instruments of 
the United States Government, and he grows almost fran- 
tic, declaring he who consents to the loss of Texas is an ex- 
ecrable traitor, who ought to be punished with death. He 
hints that war may break out, and that if so, the colonists 
should be suppressed in a single campaign, and urges upon 
his home government plans to colonize Texas with ]\Iexi- 



83 



General Teran's Garrisons 

cans. He makes many other recommendations, all more or 
less visionary, yet in the face of all these facts, he did not 
recommend cessation of immigration, though he probably 
hinted at it. He would have immigration from the States 
restricted, though just what restrictions he would have 
were not clearly stated. He w^ould not have Texas left an 
unpeopled wilderness, for then it would revert entirely to 
the Indians, and the United States might occupy it and 
claim it. He would not have it populated wholly by Ameri- 
can colonists, for he feared they would turn it over to the 
United States. He seemed to want a limited immigration 
from the States, to act as a buffer against the Indians, and 
an immigration from Mexico so that Texas might have an 
increasing Mexican population. 

And all the while that Teran visited, and wrote and 
planned, the stream of immigrants from the States con- 
tinued. 



General Teran's Garrisons. 

General Teran's recommendations with reference to Texas 
found favor with the several governments which followed 
each other in quick succession in Mexico, for he was a friend 
of all the leaders until the ascension of Santa Anna in 1832. 
Teran found a strong ally in all of his activities and sus- 
picions in Lucas Alaman, the ambitious young JMinister of 
Relations under the Victoria Government. Working in 
harmony with the administration, Teran hastened plans for 
establishing Mexican garrisons at various places in Texas, 
and Mexican convicts were impressed for this military ser- 
vice, and forces were stationed at Velasco, Anahuac, Nacog- 
doches and LaBahia. On April 6, 1830, the Mexican Con- 



84 



General Teran's Garrisons 

gress, urged on by Teran and Alaman, passed the celebrated 
decree which forbade further emigration to Texas from the 
United States. It was the inevitable friction between the 
colonists and these military authorities which provoked the 
first trouble and which kept trouble going until the revolu- 
tion in 1835-36. Garrisons of soldiers in charge of such 
men as Col. Piedras at Nacogdoches and the celebrated 
and infamous John Davis Bradburn at Anahuac, precip- 
itated the strife which verified the worst fears of poor 
Teran. In the meantime, however, while Teran wrote fran- 
tic letters and Alaman wrought powerfully to save Texas, 
American colonists continued to pour into the country by 
the thousands. There were estimated to be a thousand 
families here in 1826 when the Fredonian trouble arose; 
ten thousand people in 1828, and probably thirty thousand 
people in 1832. A great many strong and influential men 
came to Texas during the period from 1828 to 1832, men 
who became leaders during the succeeding years. Among 
those who came as early as 1828 were R. M. AVilliamson 
from Georgia, familiarly known as ''Three-legged Willie," 
and as the ' ' Patrick Henry of the Revolution ; ' ' Gail Borden, 
who came from New York; David G. Burnett from New 
Jersey ; John A. and William H. Wharton from Tennessee, 
and many others whose names have become household terms 
in Texas. There was soon a wide-spread feeling among the 
colonists, and especially the new arrivals, in favor of a more 
positive policy, and following the advent of Teran's mili- 
tary garrisons there were many murmurings and much sub- 
dued talk of independence. The colonists continued to 
prosper, however, and the prosperity was in no small meas- 
ure due to the slave-holding element, who were able to 
raise large crops of cotton for export. 

85 



General Teran's Garrisons 

After the organization of the Mexican Government un- 
der the Constitution of 1824, Texas had remained a part of 
Coahuila, and whatever semblance of a State Government it 
had depended upon the authorities at Saltillo and Mon- 
clova and such other Mexican places as were from time to 
time the capitals of Coahuila, a thousand miles away from 
the Colonies. 

Prior to 1828, Austin was the Government of the Colonies. 
In 1827, a constitution was formed for Coahuila and Texas, 
and in the following year there was an organization of the 
State Government under this constitution. The first elec- 
tion ever held in Texas was for members of the Ayuntamen- 
to of San Felipe in 1828. This council, when chosen, had 
jurisdiction between the Lavaca and San Jacinto Rivers 
and the sea. It composed all of Austin's Colony, and the 
new municipal body became the first authoritative local 
government, succeeding to many functions which had there- 
tofore been exercised by Austin alone. Two hundred thirty- 
two votes were cast, and when the ballots were sent to 
Austin at San Felipe, it was found that Thomas I\I. Duke 
had been chosen Alcalde; Thomas Davis and Humphry 
Jackson, Regidores, and Rawson Alley, Sindico. 

These officials with strange sounding names composed a 
local council with such functions as are necessary for local 
government. But in point of fact this council did very 
little, for the colonists required little government. 

There was no system of taxation, for the colonists were 
never required to pay a direct or advalorem tax to the 
Federal or State Government, and the effort later to col- 
lect customs at the ports of Anahuac, Velasco and elsewhere 
on the coast met with such violent opposition that it was 
in effect abandoned after 1832. 



86 



Bradburn at Anahuac 

Bradburn at Anahuac. 

One of Teran's garrisons was in charge of Col. John 
Davis Bradburn at Anahuac at the eastern end of Gal- 
veston Bay. This Bradburn was a renegade American, who 
began life as a small merchant, but his mercantile business 
languished somewhat and he was caught in an effort to 
steal some slaves from a Tennessee planter and incarcerated 
in the Columbia, Tennessee, jail. He escaped prison by the 
assistance of a saw which someone smuggled in to him, and 
found his w^ay to Mexico, where he joined the revolution 
and gained some distinction as a patriot, and the favor of 
Iturbede, under whom he fought. At a later date he got a 
commission from the legislature of Coahuila giving him the 
monopoly of operating steamboats on the Rio Grande River, 
but his efforts at navigation prospered little better than 
his endeavors at slave stealing. In the meantime he had 
become a Colonel in the ^Mexican Army, and we find him 
now in charge at Anahuac, where there was a considerable 
settlement of American colonists. Early in 1832 the popu- 
lation at Anahuac embraced a number of persons who 
afterwards became well known in the Colonies, among them 
Monroe Edwards, "William Barrett Travis, R. ]\I. William- 
son and Patrick C. Jack. Bradburn, who was a low-flung 
fellow, soon began a series of intolerable tyrannies. He 
went up to Liberty, suspended the functions of the local 
Ayuntamento, and strolled up and down the coast country 
with a great show of military authority. Travis and Jack 
were heard to say something unkind about him, or something 
derogatory to his greatness, and he sent a squad of soldiers 
to arrest them and had them incarcerated, announcing that 
he intended to send them to Vera Cruz or some remote Mex- 
ican place to be court martialed. This act of tyranny 



87 



Bradburn at Anahuac 

brought on what was probably the first political meeting 
or gathering designed to protest against Mexican tyranny 
ever held in Texas. There was a gathering at Brazoria, 
where it was decided that a committee should be sent to 
Anahuac to demand the release of Travis and Jack. A 
committee composed of William H. Jack and Branch T. 
Archer went over to Anahuac and demanded a surrender of 
the prisoners. Negotiations for their release were unsuc- 
cessful and a small company was raised at Brazoria, for 
the purpose of going over and forcibly effecting it. At 
that time there was a Mexican garrison stationed at 
Velasco at the mouth of the Brazos, in charge of a Mexi- 
can Colonel by the name of Ugartechea. The Brazoria 
committee waited on this military person and told him that 
they intended to go over to Anahuac and have a settlement 
with Bradburn, and requested that he remain quiescent 
and offer Bradburn no assistance during their absence. 
Among those who went from Brazoria were John Austin, 
Warren D. C. Hall, William H. Hall, William J. Russell, 
and others. On the way they were joined by Wiley IMartin 
from Fort Bend, and F. W. Johnson and other persons from 
along the Brazos. Bradburn heard of the approach of the 
colonists, and that they intended to effect the release of the 
prisoners, and dispatched a small company of cavalry to 
intercept them. The men from the Brazos, however, sur- 
prised and captured all of the cavalry and then proceeded 
to xVnahuac, where they made an armistice with Bradburn 
which he hastened to violate. As they approached Ana- 
huac, William J. Russell saw a Mexican sentry standing 
under a tree some hundred yards away and by crawling in 
the grass he got close enough to him to kill him at a single 
shot ; and this was the first blood shed in the long series of 
conflicts that ensued between Texas and Mexico. The men 



88 



The Battle of Velasco 

from the Brazos, however, were without artillery and fell 
back to Turtle Bayou, while they sent over to Brazoria for 
a small cannon. While they were waiting at Turtle Bayou 
they had an opportunity to ponder over the situation. Here 
was a small handful of colonists about to bring on a con- 
flict with a Mexican garrison which would bring down upon 
the people of Texas the entire ]\Iexican Nation. News had 
reached Texas about this time that Santa Anna had started 
a revolution in IMexico and that he had proclaimed himself 
the friend of the constitution of 1824, and while this little 
company awaited the return of the men sent for the ar- 
tillery, the happy thought possessed R. M. Williamson that 
they should put in writing the causes for which they were 
contending, and he then and there presented to those with 
him for adoption the celebrated "Turtle Bayou Resolu- 
tions." These resolutions set forth that the people of Texas 
were loyal to Mexico, that the taking up of arms was against 
the tyranny of Bradburn and other small military tyrants, 
and they declared against the Bustamente Government and 
in favor of that great champion of the liberty of people. 
General Santa Anna. These resolutions served a very 
useful purpose, as we shall later see. In the meantime re- 
inforcements arrived and the men from the Brazos moved 
on to Anahuac, captured the town and sent the Mexican 
soldiers back home and put Bradburn in the road to Louisi- 
ana, giving him a very limited time in which to reach the 
frontier. 



The BatUe of VeJasco. 

The men of Brazoria had put business before pleasure 
and had gone over to clean up Bradburn at Anahuac, before 
doing the same honor to Colonel Ugartechea and his com- 

89 



The Battle of Velasco 

mand at Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos. They ex- 
acted a gentlemen's agreement from the Colonel that he 
would ''stay put" and would not send any reinforcements 
to Bradburn, or as it were, that he would be dormant while 
they captured Bradburn and ran his garrison out of the 
country. After this they planned to come back and do the 
same thing to Ugartechea, but it is not recorded that they 
told him in so many Avords that this was their plan, al- 
though he well may have surmised it. After they had 
gotten away and sent back for the cannon that was to be 
brought up while the men of Brazoria waited at Turtle 
Bayou, Ugartechea repented of his inactivity and refused 
to allow boats carrying guns to Anahuac to pass out of the 
river. In addition to this, the Colonel showed some signs 
of activity about his fort, which indicated that he was put- 
ting himself in a high state of defense, and as soon as the 
business at Anahuac was done, these same Brazoria per- 
sons turned their attention to Ugartechea 's garrison at 
Velasco. William J. Russell, who had shot the Mexican 
sentinel at Anahuac, was one of the leading spirits in the 
Velasco Campaign. 

The volunteers who enlisted for the siege of Velasco 
selected John Austin Captain. He was no kin to Stephen, 
but had come to Texas from New England, at the beginning 
of the colonies. The fort was attacked by land and by sea. 
The navy was a small schooner which was temporarily an- 
chored in the harbor, and which Admiral Russell impressed 
into the service for the occasion. They turned this simple 
little three-master into a man-of-war, placing two small 
cannon on its deck and eighteen rifle-men mid-ships, who 
under the command of Admiral Russell, opened a bombard- 
ment from the river side of the fort. After the battle had 
raged for a night and a day, the fort surrendered. Seven 



90 



The Battle of Velasco 

Texans were killed and twenty-seven wounded. The Mex- 
ican losses were forty-two dead and more than seventy 
wounded. The terms of the surrender were, that Colonel 
Ugartechea and the small remnant of his forces able to 
migrate were to go back to Mexico. A few weeks later, 
Colonel Piedras of Nacogdoches, who commanded the only 
remaining garrison in Texas, was subjected to considerable 
trouble by the colonists in East Texas ; and after some forty 
of his men had been killed, and as many wounded, he ac- 
ceded to the suggestion that he go south, and moved out 
with the remnant of his garrison. With the passing of Pie- 
dras, the last of poor Teran 's men were driven from Texas. 
This spontaneous uprising on the part of the colonists, and 
the bloody expulsion of the Mexican garrisons from Texas, 
would undoubtedly have brought disaster to the colonists, 
had it not been for the miraculous intervention of a timely 
revolution in Mexico. 

Upon the fall of Iturbede, in 1823, the ten-minute Con- 
gress assumed authority, until the formation of the con- 
stitution, in 1824, and Guadalupe Victoria, a great and good 
man, had been chosen first Constitutional President. Near 
the close of his term, in 1828, a revolution resulted in Don 
Manuel Pedraza being named President; but he was not 
permitted to hold the office. Before he could get comfort- 
ably seated, another revolution, fomented by Santa Anna 
and headed by Guerrero, took the Presidency vi et armis. 

Bnstamente was Guerrero's Vice President, and he 
promptly started a new revolution which in the following 
year raised him to the Presidency, and with the ascension of 
this boisterous usurper, Guerrero, one of the purest of all 
the Mexican patriots, was shot as a traitor. 

It was during the term of Bustamente that the Decree of 
1830 was promulgated, prohibiting the further immigration 

91 



Mejia's Fleet 

of people from the States into Texas. In 1832, Santa Anna, 
who had backed Guerrero against Pedraza, who had con- 
sistently plotted against every Government that had pro- 
vailed in Mexico since he was old enough to bear arms, 
started the annual revolution against Bustamente. News 
of Santa Anna's revolution reached Texas about the time 
the men of the Brazos were on their way to Anahuac. The 
people of Texas hoped and probably believed that Santa 
Anna was an improvement on those who had been President, 
and that he would keep his promise to maintain a Constitu- 
tional Government. At any rate, they declared for him and 
this was the excuse that they offered for the expulsion of the 
Mexican garrisons. 



Mejia's Fleet. 

The news of the forcible expulsion of the Mexican sol- 
diers from Texas made a terrific impression in Mexico. It 
was received there with the same apprehension that was 
felt at the Fredonian outbreak in 1826. Though Santa 
Anna and Bustamente were in the death struggle for the 
master}^ of Mexico, both parties and all factions took a 
moment's armistice at the receipt of the ill news of the 
uprising in Texas. Teran had remained true to Bustamente 
and commanded his forces in the Eastern Division. Santa 
Anna sent IMontezuma to assume command in that Division, 
and a battle between him and Teran, fought in 1832, 
gave Montezuma the advantage. Teran saw the sure suc- 
cess of Santa Anna, and ill news was coming to him from 
Texas, all his worst fears no\v came upon him, and this tal- 
ented and valiant man fell on his sword at Perdillo, in June, 
1832. Montezuma assumed charge of affairs in the East- 
ern Division, in the name of Santa Anna, and since this 



92 



Mejia's Fleet 

Division included Texas, he gave anxious heed to the wild 
rumors of rebellion which came thick and fast from Texas, 
in the midsunnner of that 3^ear. Like all the other ^lexican 
leaders, he assumed that the long looked for rebellion had 
come to pass in Texas, and he saw behind it the vricked 
schemes of the United States of the North. A temporary 
truce was arranged between the warring factions in IMex- 
ico, who were so strenuously striving for each other's utter 
extermination, while IMontezuma organized and dispatched 
a strong detachment to quell the rebellion in Texas. 

Colonel Jose Antonio Mejia (Mexia) left Tanipico in July 
with a squadron of six ships and four hundred men and 
with plenary powers to restore order and Mexican sove- 
reignty in Texas. As he came past Matamoros, he stopped 
to confer with his arch enemy, Colonel IManzamores, wiio 
still held that small corner of the earth for Bustamente, und 
that worthy bade Mejia God-speed in his crusade against 
the common enemy. 

During these troubled days, Stephen F. Austin was down 
at Saltillo, in Coahuila, where he was attending a session 
of the Legislature, of which he was a member from Texas. 
Poor Austin was not in sympathy with many of the hot 
headed leaders in Texas, who were bent on war and sepa- 
ration from Mexico. He had been absent from home some 
weeks and had not followed the trend of events. He was 
picked up at IMatamoros by IMejia's fleet and came on with 
them to the mouth of the Brazos, which they reached on 
July 20th, a few weeks after the battle of Velasco. This 
afforded Austin a splendid opportunity to impress upon 
Mejia his fidelity to Mexico, and as was ever the case where 
the IMexican leaders viewed Texas through an acquaintance 



93 



Mejia's Fleet 

with Austin, the impressiou of Texas and the Texans was 
decidedly improved. 

The approach of Mejia's fleet, supposed to bring with it 
the ire of Mexico, seemed to forebode dark days for the 
colonists, and indeed there was much apprehension through- 
out the countr}^ during these summer days of 1832. 

Colonel John Austin, Admiral William J. Russell, Wil- 
liam H. AVharton, and others who were awaiting the com- 
ing of Mejia's fleet, artfully met the situation by hastening 
to meet and receive the Colonel as an accredited envoy of 
Santa Anna, for whom they proclaimed in loud terms. In 
order to duly impress Mejia with their sincerity, they or- 
ganized a mass meeting at Brazoria and with much cere- 
mony read in a loud tone of voice the ' ' blessed Turtle Bayou 
resolutions." Stephen Austin and Colonel Mejia were 
everywhere received with transports of great joy and were 
wined and dined up and down the Brazos. A banquet of 
great dimensions Avas held at the plantation home of Wil- 
liam H. Wharton, at Eagle Island, just below Brazoria, 
where there was rhetoric, both in Spanish and English, and 
music, and manj^ good things to drink. Under these felici- 
tous environments, they gave cheers for Santa Anna and 
the constitution of 1824, of Avhich he was heralded as the 
champion and preserver. Of course they did not know 
that in trading Bustamente for Santa Anna, they had 
swapped the devil for the witch, or possibly I should say 
the witch for the devil, but at any rate this turn of affairs 
gave the colonists a respite of three or four years, during 
which many things happened to improve their situation and 
opportunities for successful resistance. 

Colonel Mejia visited San Felipe and Nacogdoches and 
other points in Texas and finding everywhere prepared 
evidences of loyalty and devotion to Mexico and to the 



94 



Mejia's Fleet 

constitution of 1824, and especially to Santa Anna, he went 
home happy. One cannot but wonder what would have been 
the result had this good natured, hard drinking Mexican 
Colonel been a man of Teran's ability and foresight, but 
''God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." 

Though Colonel Mejia was in those days a champion of 
Santa Anna, things changed about in later years, and in 
1839 he led an expedition outfitted largely at New Or- 
leans against Santa Anna, who was again in power. 

At the battle of Hcajete, near Pueblo, he was defeated 
and captured, and Santa Anna sentenced him to be shot in 
half an hour. ' ' He is very kind, ' ' said General Mejia, ' ' had 
I taken him I would have shot him in five minutes." 



95 




GENERAL SANTA ANNA. 



THE REVOLUTION 

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. 

It is Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Two. The scenes are 
now set for the great drama of the Revolution. It has been 
ten 3^ears since Austin and his little company of first colo- 
nists camped on New Years Creek and since William Mor- 
ton burned away the cane brake and planted the first corn 
crop on the banks of the Brazos across from where Rich- 
mond now stands. Yet these ten years have seen won- 
drous changes. In 1832 there were 30,000 people in Texas, 
settled all the way from the Sabine to the Guadaloupe, all 
for independence from Mexico, and many of them intem- 
perate and outspoken in their plans and purposes. They 
had a contempt for the prudence and patience of Austin 
and were open in their criticism of him. 

As we are about to studj^ this very important quadren- 
nial, 1832 to 1836, it is interesting to sketch an outline of 
some of the remarkable characters who played upon this 
stage. Biography must ever be one of the most important 
forms of literature and history, for what is more interesting 
to men than the relation of the deeds of other men of action 
who have been upon this mortal stage before Ave came to 
-play our petty parts? 

Of the many names Ave encounter in the drama of the 
Revolution none is heard more often than that of Antonio 
Lopez de Santa Anna, Avho Avas born in Jalapa, Mexico, in 
1792, and Avho died in the City of Mexico in his eighty- 
fourth year, in 1876. Fcav men have had a more interest- 
ing and varied career. He entered the Spanish army at fif- 
teen, and fought against the patriot cause until he saw the 



97 



Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna 

finish of Spanish sovereignty in 1821, when he, like Itur- 
bede, turned patriot. He supported Iturbede at first, but 
as soon as that person eame into power Santa Anna began 
to plot against him, for plotting was ever his chief enter- 
prise. As early as December, 1822, he openly revolted and 
led the revolution which overthrew the empire and sent 
Iturbede into exile. At the close of Victoria's term (he be- 
ing the first constitutional President), Santa Anna led a 
second revolution against the seating of Gomez Pedraza, 
who had been declared elected by Congress to succeed Vic- 
toria, and this revolution resulted in having Pedraza driven 
out. Santa Anna played a leading part in placing the 
patriot Guerrero in power instead of Pedraza. This was in 
1828." The following year the Spanish Government made a 
last feeble attempt to re-conquer IMexico, and landed a 
force at Vera Cruz. Santa Anna led an army against the 
Spaniards and defeated them, earning for himself the plau- 
dits of his country. It was currently rumored that he had in 
fact assembled this force to overthrow Guerrero, whom he 
had only a few months before placed in the presidency ; but 
the Spanish invasion gave him a timely pretense to turn his 
revolutionary designs into patriotic purposes. After his 
military success against the Spaniards he retired to his es- 
tate at Jalapa. But Bustamente beat him to the next 
revolution and made himself President in 1829. Naturally, 
and very promptly, Santa Anna now turned his attention 
and his designs to Bustamente, for he was perfectly impar- 
tial in his plotting and consistently contrived against all 
persons in power. In January, 1832, he declared openly 
against the government of Bustamente and led the revolu- 
tion which culminated in this year, the effects of which were 
felt throughout Texas. After his defeat of Bustamente 
in December, 1832, he had himself elected President along 



98 



Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna 

with Gomez Farias, Vice-President. Instead of going to the 
capital and assuming the duties of the Chief Magistracy, 
this strange, intriguing person invested Gomez Farias, the 
Vice-President, with supreme power and again retired to his 
estates in JaLnpa to plot against his own administration. 
His love of duplicity and intrigue were so great that he 
relished such a role more than the realization of supreme 
power. Then, too, he had in his campaign against Busta- 
mente posed as champion of constitutional government and 
had allowed his name to be linked with a desire to restore 
the constitution of 1824. 

This he had no notion of doing, and he did not dare 
unmask at once after his elevation. Between 1832 and 
1834, while he was President in retirement, he actively en- 
gaged in several campaigns against spasmodic insurrections 
here and there, always keeping the control of such military 
organization as the country possessed. In 1834 he would re- 
sume the presidency, but though he were the lawful Presi- 
dent and had the right to leave his estate and come into the 
city and become President, yet force of habit was so strong 
with him that he preferred to do so through the medium of 
a revolution. So he led an insurrection against his Vice- 
President, Gomez Farias, and took active charge of the 
Government. During the two years he had been President 
in retirement he had allowed all the odium of misgovern- 
ment to accumulate against Farias. In January, 1835, he 
had himself declared President by the jMexiean Congress, 
but almost immediately retired to his Jalapa plantation 
and arranged for General Barragan to act as Provisional 
President. He probably hoped that it would be necessary 
to hatch a plot and start a revolution to put Barragan out. 
From his estate in Jalapa he continued to arrange a plan 
by which he would at the right time become absolute ruler 

99 



The First Texas Convention of October, 1832 

of IMexico, and gradually, but thoroughly, he had all forms 
of constitutional government abolished, dismantled the 
State Governments to the extent that the Governors were to 
be appointed by, and dependent upon, him, and "scrapped" 
the constitution. Some of the State Governments resisted 
the open attempt at subversion and stood out against him. 
Coahuila was one of the last to fall. All hope that he would 
protect the constitution of 1824 was now gone, the mask 
was off; and in 1835 Texans knew that the hour had struck. 
This Avas the man Avhom they hailed as their deliverer in 
1832, and whom they faced and fought as a tyrant in 
1836. 



The First Texas Convention of October, 1832. 

We come now to the interesting epoch when the people 
of Texas first began to assemble in convention and to discuss 
the common weal. The mass meeting and convention, as 
these institutions had developed in the States, had become 
a powerful medium of free speech. Such institutions were 
unknown among the Latin people. In Mexico and the other 
Spanish-American countries, a mass meeting where men 
assemble and discuss principles without coming to blows, 
was unknown and impossible. In August, 1882, Horatio 
Chrisman, first Alcalde of San Felipe, joined John Austin, 
the second Alcalde, in a call for a general convention of 
all the Colonies of Texas. The call indicated that it was to 
discuss the misrepresentations that had been circulated con- 
cerning the purposes of Texas in driving out the garrisons 
in 1832. The people wanted to go on record against the 
rumor that Texas sought independence and to give some 
public declaration of fealty to Mexico. It was also stated 
in the call there was to be a discussion of Indian affairs. 



100 



The First Texas Convention of October, 1832 

Fifty-six delegates from sixteen districts assembled at 
San Felipe, on the Brazos, Bexar alone being unrepresented. 
The Mexican population of San Antonio could not be in- 
duced to join in such enterprise. Austin and William H. 
Wharton were nominated to preside over the convention 
and Austin was chosen President. The delegates came all 
the way from the Sabine to Bastrop. When the conven- 
tion assembled it was discovered that there was a well- 
divided and w^ell-balanced division of sentiment, there 
being a radical party that secretly favored independence 
though they openly avowed the contrary, and a very con- 
servative party that did not favor separation from Mexico. 
Austin was in all respects the soul and leader of the con- 
servatives. The AYhartons were the representatives and 
leaders of the more radical element. 

The first topic which came up for discussion was the de 
cree of 1830, which prevented the further settlement of 
Americans in Texas. This had been the severest trial to the 
colonists of all of the ^Mexican decrees. Though it had 
been generally disregarded and people from the States 
came freely during the period from 1830 to 1832, yet the 
fact that they were denied the privilege of coming and ac- 
quiring a status of citizenship was a matter of grave 
concern to the colonists. A committee of five was appointed 
to prepare a memorial to the ^Mexican Republic praying for 
a repeal of the exclusion law and to set forth the trials and 
dangers encountered in efforts to colonize the country, and 
to emphasize the respect and attachment that the people 
bore for the constitution and laws of the Republic. 

William H. Wharton was made chairman of this commit- 
tee and wrote its report. An executive committee was ap- 
pointed to draft a petition for the reduction of the duties 
on necessities. Another committee composed of Luke Leas- 



101 



The First Texas Convention of October, 1832 

sier, William McFarland, William Menefee, Samuel Bruff 
and Thomas Hastings was appointed to prepare a petition 
to the State Government for a donation of land to Texas 
for the creation of a school fund for the maintenance of 
primary schools. This is probably the first legislation, if 
it may be so called, bearing upon the topic of public schools, 
that was ever formulated in Texas. But it must be remem- 
bered that this is the first public representative assemblage 
that was ever held in Texas. The question uppermost in 
the minds of those who sat in this convention was that of 
separate statehood for Texas. It was discussed informally, 
and there was an effort made to keep it from being brought 
before the convention because there were those Avho foresaw 
that a move in this direction would mean trouble. On the 
third day, however, it was presented and debated with 
much interest. A vote of 36 to 12 was registered in favor 
of appointing a committee of two from each municipality 
to report the expediency of petitioning for a State Govern- 
ment. A memorial requesting a separate State Govern- 
ment was prepared, and William H. Wharton was chosen 
messenger to present it, and it was suggested that Juan 
Raphael Monchola, of Goliad, accompany him. It was nev- 
er, however, formally presented, and the question came up 
again in 1833, and again in 1834, when Austin went to 
Mexico to present such memorial and was imprisoned for 
treason for having done so. After a six-day session the 
convention adjourned. Before doing so, however, it ap- 
pointed a standing central committee in San Felipe which 
was to be subordinate to the local committees in the dis- 
tricts represented in the convention. F. W. Johnson, whose 
name is conspicuous during the revolutionary period, 
was made chairman of this central committee with author- 
ity to call another convention, if necessary. The memorial 



102 



The Convention of 1833 

requesting separate statehood was couched in the most 
respectful and genteel terms ; its language was selected and 
guarded. Yet strange as it may seem, not only the Mexican 
authorities but the Mexican citizens of Texas looked upon 
this simple, respectful petition as a declaration of war and 
as treason of the first order. The political chief at San An- 
tonio, Don Jose de la Garza, wrote the Governor of Coa- 
huila referring to it as a wide-spreading insurrection, and 
suggested, ''that a true Mexican could but bitterly deplore 
his misfortune and feel sore at the foreign hand that had 
come boldly to rob him of his rights, employing physical 
force when even rational arguments from such a source 
ought hardly be tolerated. ' ' No clearer glimpse of the Mexi- 
can mind can be shown than these chance expressions found 
in Garza's letter. A Mexican could not understand how it 
were possible that there would be such a thing as a law- 
ful loyal assemblage to voice public sentiment. Such a thing 
seemed as paradoxical to him as a lawful riot or a peaceful 
fight. To him all such meetings were per se treasonable 
and revolutionary. 

The central committee provided by this convention was 
the first State Governmental machiner}^ devised in Texas. 
Through it another convention was called the following 
year. 

The Convention of 1833. 

The news of the San Felipe Convention of 1832 produced 
as great a commotion in jMexican political circles as the 
Fredonian Rebellion had done six j^ears before. All official 
Mexico regarded it as seditious and treasonable that the 
colonists should assemble in a public place and state their 
grievances. The patriotic utterances found in the journal 



103 



The Convention of 1833 

of the convention seemed to have been accepted as a chal- 
lenge to Mexican sovereignty. When the matter was called 
to the attention of Santa Anna, who was at the moment in 
supreme authority in Mexico, he wrote: ''I am satisfied 
that the foreigners who have intruded themselves into the 
province of Texas have a strong tendency to declare them- 
selves independent of the republic, and their remonstrances 
and complaints are but disguised to that end." He sug- 
gested that General Filisola be sent into Texas with a suffi- 
cient force ' ' to secure the integrity of our territory. ' ' The 
Minister of State wrote the political chief at San Antonio : 
''Your Lordship will make use of all means in your power 
to cause these Texans to understand that such excesses 
among them as have recently come to light must inevitably 
bring ruin upon them." In the meanwhile the colonists 
were utterly oblivious to the storm that the San Felipe Con- 
vention of 1832 had produced in far away Mexico, called 
and planned the second convention of all Texas, which as- 
sembled at San Felipe on the Brazos in 1833. The central 
committee which had been constituted by the convention 
the year before, issued the call in Januar}^ This second 
convention was in many respects a repetition of the first. 
About the same number of delegates attended. Austin and 
Wharton were again candidates for the presidenc}^ or chair- 
manship of the convention, and this time Wharton was 
chosen, showing a tendency towards a more radical course. 
Sam Houston appeared in this convention as a delegate 
from San Augustine, and this was his first appearance and 
participation in public affairs in Texas. The conven- 
tion the year before had approached the cjuestion of separate 
statehood delicately and declared for it, and pointed out 
provisions of the constitution of Coahuila and Texas which 
had been adopted in 1827, which justified the setting 



104 



The Convention of 1833 

up of a separate State Government in Texas. These pro- 
visions declared that as soon as Texas should be in a con- 
dition to form a State it should make a declaration to that 
effect to Congress for further action. The Convention of 
1S32 and the one of 1833 seemed, therefore, to have been 
following this constitutional provision, and neither did 
more than to make a declaration in favor of separate state- 
hood. The Convention of 1833 went so far as to propose a 
constitution for the new State. Stephen F. Austin and 
James B. Miller, of Gonzales, and Juan Erasmus Seguin, 
the same urbane gentlemen who had been sent twelve years 
before to welcome Austin to Texas, were appointed messen- 
gers to bear this petition to ^Mexico. Austin alone went 
on this perilous mission, leaving Texas early in May, 1833. 
His good faith and the good faith of his people seemed 
sufficient to guarantee the integrity of his enterprise. The 
people of Texas did not know the effect that these con- 
ventions had upon the iMexican mind, else this journey 
never would have been undertaken. 

The most interesting thing which this convention did 
was to form a proposed constitution for the proposed State. 

The document is yet in existence and is the first of our 
many constitutions. It contains a clause declaring that no 
bank shall be established in Texas for 99 years. It is said 
that Dr. Archer proposed a plan for creation of a State 
bank, and that Sam Houston led the opposition to it. This 
was but a reflex of the fight that had been raging in the 
States, and that yet raged on during the Jackson Adminis- 
tration over the Bank of the United States. 

We all know that Jackson 's fight on the bank was the re- 
sult of one of his petty prejudices and not from any prin- 
ciple. But it became a conviction with him, one of his very 
articles of faith, and he kept on with the fight until he 



105 



Austin's Second Journey to Mexico, in May, 1833 

destroyed the bank and the credit of the country, and 
brought on our first real financial panic. Houston was in 
all things a devotee and follower of General Jackson, and 
on his first opportunity in Texas he began a Jackson fight 
on the phantom bank which was proposed for incorporation 
in the proposed constitution for the proposed State. His 
arguments against the bank prevailed, and it was outlawed 
for 99 years. As long as Houston dominated in Texas af- 
fairs there was no banking sj^stem, nor were there any 
banks in Texas until long after it became a State in the 
American Union. 



Austin's Second Journey to Mexico, in May, 1833. 

Eleven years had elapsed since Austin, a youth only 
twenty-eight years old, had made his first visit to Mexico 
and had gotten a confirmation of his father's colonial 
grant. He had spent these years between in unremitting 
toil and had seen his colonial enterprise prosper and flour- 
ish. It was against his judgment that he undertook the 
mission thrust upon him by the Convention of 1833, but he 
knew that no one else in Texas could do so with any assur- 
ance of success. At Matamoros he had an interview with 
General Filisola and was reassured by that gentleman, who 
advised Austin that he was about to re-establish military 
garrisons in Texas to enforce the revenue laws. After 
this conference, Austin wrote back to Brazoria: ''I have 
pledged my honor that Filisola would have the full support 
of Texas in sustaining the law, and I have full confidence 
that the people will not forget my pledge." This letter 
was written just before he took passage for Vera Cruz and 
he assures his people of his faith in the Mexican Govern- 
ment. He reached the City of Mexico in June, 1833, in the 



106 



Austin's Second Journey to Mexico, in May, 1833 

midst of a terrible epidemic of cholera. After a long time 
he was able to present the memorial of the San Felipe 
Convention of 1833 to the Mexican Congress, then in session, 
and he labored through the whole summer in an effort to 
get some recognition of the plans for separate statehood. 
He did succeed in getting a revocation of the Decree of 
1830 forbidding further emigration from the States, and 
when we understand the circumstances it is marvelous that 
he accomplished this much. He continued his labors until 
December of 1833, and was now convinced that Santa Anna 
was at heart a despot and that Congress would deny to Texas 
a separate statehood. He had not received the warm hand 
of cordial treatment that he had been accorded in Mexi- 
can official circles on his former visit to the city. He found 
a general distrust against the Texans, and especially the 
people and the Government of the United States. He then 
suspected and we noAV know, that this was in part brought 
about by the conduct of the American Minister to Mexico. 
The Adams administration had sent Joel Poinsette of South 
Carolina as Minister to Mexico, and had caused him to 
labor unceasingly for the purchase of Texas. Although 
his plan of procedure was not always commendable, yet 
there was nothing particularly vicious or unseemly about it. 
But with the incoming of the Jackson Administration and 
the spoils system of public office which General Jackson in- 
troduced, some strange personalities got into power, not 
only in Washington but everywhere that political intrigue 
could succeed in naming an office seeker to place. One 
Anthony Butler had been made Minister to Mexico, and 
a student of Mexican and American history, after the 
lapse of nearly a hundred years, is brought to blush at the 
infamy of this individual. He intrigued against every 
Government that prevailed in IMexico during his stay there. 



107 



Austin in Prison 

He intrigued against Texas and the Texans, and he helped 
circulate false rumors about Austin, and probably con- 
tributed largely to the failure of Austin's mission, and to 
his subsequent imprisonment. Shortly before leaving the 
City of Mexico for his return home, Austin addressed a let- 
ter to the Ayuntemento at San Antonio urging the peo- 
ple of that jurisdiction to join the other districts of Texas 
in requesting separate statehood. He, no doubt, felt that 
if the Mexican population of San Antonio would join the 
other Colonies in such a request that it would have weight ; 
and he also felt some chagrin that the San Antonio people 
withheld their influence in this matter. This letter con- 
tained an expression that was a little injudicious. He 
wrote: "All the municipalities of Texas should come 
without delay to an understanding and arrange a local 
Government for Texas as a State of the Mexican Federation. 
Things should be prepared with harmony, thus being ready 
for the time when the Congress will refuse approval." He 
left the City of Mexico December 10th. This letter Avhich 
he had dispatched to San Antonio in October was promptly 
returned to the City of Mexico, and as soon as its contents 
were made known to the Government officials there, orders 
were issued for Austin's arrest, and he was overtaken at 
Saitillo and apprehended and carried back to the City of 
Mexico and incarcerated in a dungeon which had been left 
over from the Spanish Inquisition. 

Austin in Prison. 

Austin has left among his papers a diary beginning with 
the day he left the City of Mexico, on December 10th, and 
covering a large part of the time that he was in prison. He 
probably wrote his diary during the latter part of his im- 

108 



Austin in Prison 

prisonment, when he was allowed some liberty and subjected 
to less scrutiny. The first pages indicate that they may 
have been written upon the dates they bear, as they give 
no intimation of his impending arrest. He left the City of 
Mexico traveling in a coach with several well known gentle- 
men. The party was in constant apprehension of brigands 
and went well armed. On December 16th they reached 
Quartero, w^here thirty years later Maximilian met his 
fate. He spent the day there and visited the churches and 
other places of interest. That he had no forewarning of 
the danger that awaited him seems obvious from the follow- 
ing taken from his diary covering his stay in Quar- 
tero: 

''16th December. 
''We remain in Quartero; visited convents. There are 
many and very large. One has a large fountain constructed 
by a marquis who has perpetuated his fame and piety by a 
statue of himself of his own size which stands in the cen- 
ter of the fountain on the base of stone. There are exten- 
sive baths convenient to this fountain constructed by this 
same marquis. One wonders how much sweat and tears 
from the Indian slaves it cost which the marquis employed 
in the construction of this fountain and baths, but he re- 
ceived absolution from the monks and went to heaven. In 
the orchard there are many pretty cypress trees. I col- 
lected seeds from them to carry to Texas. They showed 
me some of these trees planted by the hands of Rev. Father 
Morfit, who had been a monk in this convent and was at 
one time a missionary at Nacogdoches, in Texas. This 
monlv is very famous, for he has been a second Moses. At 
Nacogdoches all the springs went dry and he went out 
with images of the saints and necessary apparatus to per- 
form miracles. He struck a bloAV with a rod of iron on a 



109 



Austin in Prison 

rock which stands on the bank of Lanana Creek in Nacog- 
doches and immediately a stream of water gushed out suffi- 
cient to supply the inhabitants with water to drink. This 
miracle was canonized in Rome and a print of engraving of 
the Father was made. This same padre, when he left Nac- 
ogdoches for Bexar, lost a baggage mule which a tiger 
killed, and in the morning as soon as the padre knew it he 
made the tiger come and kneel at his feet and then he 
was harnessed and loaded with the baggage of the dead 
mule, which he carried to Bexar, and then having received 
a pardon for having killed the mule was sent back to the 
desert. All this is true because several old w^omen told it 
to me in Nacogdoches and in Bexar and we ought never to 
suppose that Rome would order an engraving to be made of 
the miracle of the water only to deceive credulous people." 

The journal continues with this same delightful narra- 
tive until his arrival at Saltillo on February 3rd, w^hen it 
contains the simple memorandum : 

''On the third day I was arrested by General Lemus by 
orders from the Secretary of War, dated in Mexico, De- 
cember 21st." 

Daily entries covered the return to the City of Mexico. 

February 13th: ''In Mexico, where I was put in the In- 
quisition, shut up in the dark dungeon I am not allowed 
communication with anyone. ' ' 

"February 14th: Heard cannon fire during the day in 
memory of Guerrero, who was shot on this day, 1831." 

The entry of February 20th is interesting and has since 
caused much comment: "Is it or not the interest of Texas 
to separate herself even if she were at liberty to do so? 
No, certainly not. Is it or not the interest of the United 
States of the North to acquire Texas ? It is not, because she 
would extend her territory too much. And what is worse? 



110 



Austin in Prison 

She would annex a large district which would have no in- 
terest in common with the rest of the republic. All the 
rivers of Texas take their rise in Texas at a little distance 
from each other and do not enter the territories of the 
north so as to form bonds of union as does the River Mis- 
sissippi in Louisiana and other States adjacent. There is no 
market in the north for the produce of Texas, and there 
is in ]\Iexico. Texas is more distant to the seat of Washing- 
ton than from the City of Mexico. As regards the trade 
wdth Europe, the Mexican flag is equal to that of the north. 
What then is the true interest of Texas? It is to have 
local Government, to cement and strengthen its union with 
Mexico instead of weakening or breaking it. What Texas 
wants is an organization of a local government, and it is of 
little consequence w^hether it be a part of Coahuila or a 
separate State or Territory, provided the organization be a 
suitable one." 

W^hether Austin expressed his real sentiments or whether 
he was writing this for the eye of his inquisitors has been 
a matter of much speculation, but I am inclined to believe 
that he meant what he wrote, for I do not think that he 
was capable of duplicity even though he were in the dun- 
geon of the Inquisition facing trial for treason. 

''February 26th. What a horrible punishment is soli- 
tary confinement, shut up in a dungeon with scarcely light 
enough to distinguish anything! If I were a criminal it 
would be another thing, but I am not one. I have been en- 
snared and precipitated, but my intentions were pure and 
correct. ' ' 

"February 23rd: Philanthropy is but another name of 
trouble. I have labored with pure intentions to benefit 
others, and especially to advance and improve my adopted 
country. What have I gained? Enemies, persecution, im- 

111 



Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Four 

prisonment, accused of ingratitude to Mexico, which is one 
of the most unjust accusations which can be brought against 
me." 

There are many things in this interesting diary which 
every Texan should read. Broken in health from the ar- 
duous labors of the last decade, and now confined in this 
dark, solitary dungeon, poor Austin indeed had a right to 
feci that his philanthropy was the cause of all his troubles. 

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-four. 

There was no convention or general assembly in Texas 
this year. Austin 's imprisonment had cast a gloom over the 
Colonies. There had been high hopes that when he reached 
Mexico bearing the worthy memorials of the San Felipe 
Convention of 1833, that the difficulties of Texas would 
find solution. 

To all thoughtful men his incarceration was the last 
challenge, but both popular expression and open action were 
arrested for fear that any action or outburst in Texas would 
cost Austin his life. In the meantime every semblance 
of State Grovernment in Texas and Coahuila was going to 
pieces. There was a civil w^ar raging in Coahuila between 
two factions, one declaring that Saltillo was the capital of 
the State and the other holding forth at Monclova. 

Oliver Jones was the delegate from Texas to the State 
Congress or Legislature, and in September he wrote from 
Monclova that the State Government was gone and that 
anarchy prevailed. Though Texas had no State Govern- 
ment, yet the people of the Colonies were industrious and 
orderly and the local Ayuntementos in the different dis- 
tricts furnished a substantial local government for the 
time being. The year before the State had been divided 



112 



Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Four 

itito the departments of Brazos and Nacogdoches, and Henry 
Smith of Brazoria had been named political chief of the 
Department of Brazos, he being the first American honored 
with such an appointment. His elevation placed him in 
leadership during the absence of Austin. Upon the receipt 
of Jones' letter, Smith issued a long address, the gist of 
which was, that since there was no State Government in 
Coahuila, and since Texas must have a government, there- 
fore it should take the initiative and organize one. He 
suggested another convention. Henry Smith was indeed a 
worthy patriot. The year following he was chosen Provi- 
sional Governor of Texas, and the portrait of the old fron- 
tiersman hangs in our State capitol today as the first of 
the American Governors of Texas. But as a political leader 
in troublesome times, he was a sad failure. 

The people of Bexar had never co-operated with the other 
Colonies in any movement looking to the common good, 
but there were some splendid men among the Mexican citi- 
zens there. Seguin wrote Smith this year suggesting a 
convention at Bexar. Since this was the first time that 
any offer of co-operation had been made from that source, 
the invitation was seized upon, and there Avas for a time 
considerable hope that a convention could be held at San 
Antonio which could probably find avenues of access to 
Mexican political life not open from San Felipe. The peo- 
ple of San Antonio, however, did not act upon the sug- 
gestion and nothing definite came of it. 

In the meanwhile Juan Xepomueeno Almonte, a bril- 
liant Mexican officer and leader, well known in that day 
and generation, visited the Colonies as the representative 
of Santa Anna and assured the people of the benevolence 
of this great Republican Chieftain. Almonte came again to 
Texas in 1836 and was in the battle of San Jacinto. A Mex- 



113 



Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Four 

ican subaltern, who afterwards wrote an account of the bat- 
tle, says that when he reached a bayou where the fleeing 
Mexican soldiers were struggling" to get across, he saw 
Almonte plunge into the water and swim across holding his 
sword in his hand above the water as though to keep it 
dry. A few days following the battle, a Texas lad picked 
up a sword on the bank of the bayou and in years later 
a son of this boy, then a very old man, gave me the sword, 
and I have it. It may be Almonte 's sword, but it may not. 
At the time of his first visit to Texas in 1834, he was only 
thirty years old, was a man of splendid appearance and ad- 
dress, and was just entering upon a long, stormy career 
in Mexican political life. Almonte was the natural son of 
the Mexican patriot priest Morelos, who started a revolu- 
tion for independence against Spain in 1811. On one oc- 
casion when there w^as grave doubt as to the fidelity of his 
followers, Morelos appeared before a gathering or mob 
and tried to make an address. As soon as he came and 
looked into the faces of those around him, he saw his doom. 
Standing at a distance in the audience he saw the eager 
face of his son, for whom he had a deep affection. Pointing 
to the youth he exclaimed shrilly, "Almonte, Almonte" (to 
the mountain; to the mountain). He was warning the 
lad to flee for his life, and the boy made his escape. And 
when this genial gentleman came to a man's estate he car- 
ried with him the name Almonte with which he was thus 
tragically christened. When Waddy Thompson was Amer- 
ican Minister to Mexico in the forties, he became a close 
friend of Almonte, and often visited in his home, where he 
saw the portrait of Morelos, represented in the uniform of 
a Mexican General, but wearing the priest's mitre. Al- 
monte was active in Mexican political affairs for thirty 



114 



The Land Scandals of 1835 

years and went down with the ill fated Empire in the late 
sixties. AVhile he was in Texas in 1834, Austin was in 
prison in iMexico, and he promised his assistance for his 
liberation upon his return, and it is said he made his prom- 
ise good. 

On October 5, 1834, Santa Anna called a council to dis- 
cuss the state of affairs in Texas. Among those present 
were Lorenza de Zavala, then high in ^Mexican official cir- 
cles and about to be sent as Minister to France, and they 
brought Austin out of prison to sit in this council. Santa 
Anna, with his usual urbanity, treated Austin with great 
consideration, and Texas' affairs were discussed with con- 
siderable freedom. It was, however, decided that Texas 
should remain attached to Coahuila, and Austin was sent 
back to prison. It was also decided at this conference to 
send a garrison of four thousand troops to Texas to keep 
away the Indians. The end of this year found Texas with- 
out a government and Austin yet in prison. 

The Land Scandal of 1835. 

The year 1835 was an unhappy and turbulent one in 
Texas. Austin was still in prison. By midsummer all sem- 
blance of Mexican authority had disappeared from the 
Colonies. The State Government down in Coahuila had 
been torn into rival factions openly at war with each other, 
and this furnished some pretext for Santa Anna's inter- 
vention. Before the State Legislature was entirely sup- 
pressed, it loaned itself to a series of land acts which were 
the legislative scandal of those days, and which have come 
down to us with a forbidding odor even after nearly one 
hundred vears. 



115 



The Land Scandals of 1835 

We find in these ''land grabbing" enterprises the names 
of some of our most sterling patriots. It is a story as old as 
Egypt, for: 

• ''Who can doubt the secret hid 
Under Cheops pyramid, 
Is that the contractor did 
Cheops out of several million?" 

Land speculation was rife in those days and the millions 
of acres of open domain which lay unclaimed was a tempta- 
tion which would have misled any generation of our an- 
cestors and which might even tempt us today. But it 
must be remembered that the acquisition of real estate has 
ever been one of the strong characteristics of our tribe. 
There is a story of how two itinerant Saxon Chiefs came 
to North England centuries ago and bought an oxhide oP 
earth, and how they cut the oxhide in strips and in the 
rainy season stretched it around what is now a large pari 
of an English shire. 

Well, the oxhide trick was worked overtime down at 
Monclova in 1834 and 1835. 

In the colonization law^ of 1825, there was a provision 
which was construed to give the State Government authority 
to sell land to Mexicans upon such terms as it might see 
fit, as much as eleven leagues of land in a single grant. 
Eleven leagues of land — how that term sounds to us who 
have seen a city lot sell for five hundred dollars a front foot, 
or a single oil acre for tens of thousands. Eleven leagues 
of land; this is nearly fifty thousand English acres. Enter- 
prising Mexicans were not long in learning of this privilege, 
and soon after its passage, one Juan Antonio Padilla pro- 
cured the first grant, which was located in 1828. There 
were numerous grants which sold for as low as $100.00 



116 



The Land Scandals of 1835 

per league. In 1830, the patriot James Bowie, who is said 
to have been the inventor and a skillful operator of the 
knife which bears his name, journeyed down to Saltillo 
and induced various Mexicans residing there to apply for 
eleven league grants, and when they had been made Bowie 
purchased the certificates and they were trafficked about and 
locations were made under them. These transactions much 
disturbed many of the Colonies, for the locations under 
these large grants bearing Mexican names often conflicted 
wdth the little land holdings of a stockman farmer w'ho only 
had a petty league and labor. 

They threatened to hinder Ben ]\Iilam's Red River Colony 
in a serious w-ay, and he undertook a trip to Mexico in 1834 
to protest against them, and was returning from that long 
perilous journey in 1835 when he joined the patriot army 
on its way to Bexar. In the troubled days of 1834 and 1835, 
W'hen the State Government of Coahuila was in confusion, 
there w^ere a series of these acts which reflect no credit 
upon the times. 

In 1834, an act was passed designed to grant a bounty 
to soldiers who w-ould enlist for service against the Indians, 
and under this act Samuel M. Williams, Robert Peeples 
and F. W. Johnson obtained a grant for one hundred 
leagues. The last Legislature w^hich met in 1835 was un- 
usually active in this regard. An act was passed on March 
14th, w^hich gave the Governor authority in the "present 
emergency" to dispose of lands about as he saw fit, and 
under it, certificates for about 400 leagues w^ere issued. 

S. M. Williams and John Durst got one hundred and 
twenty-four of these certificates wdiich they resold. The last 
of these land statutes were passed in April, 1835, just before 
Cos' army reached Monclova on its march north for Texas 
via Coahuila. It was know^n that the army was approaching 



117 



The Land Scandals of 1835 

with authority to suppress the Legislature, and in its dy- 
ing hours on April 7th, it passed a final enactment which 
gave the G-overnor yet more authority to sell land. 

Doctor James Grant, who perished in the Revolution 
only a few months later, came away with certificates for 
100 leagues which he sold and after his death his estate 
listed unlocated and unsold certificates for 300 leagues. As 
Cos' army approached there was a wild exodus of legis- 
lators and land speculators. 

Governor Viesca decided to cast his lot with the Texans 
and left for the Rio Grande along Avith a company of Texans 
who rode out of ]\lonclova just before the Mexican army 
rode in. 

These land transactions were seized upon by Santa Anna 
as a cause for his attitude towards the State Government 
of Coahuila and the Texans. It was declaimed that a cor- 
rupt T\Iexican Legislature connived w^ith a worse coterie of 
Texans in schemes to exploit the public domain, and that 
severe military measures were necessary to prevent these 
wholesale frauds. Hence these land speculations are often 
given as one of the causes of the Revolution, though in 
fact we know they were an incident rather than a cause. 
But nowhere were they more severely condemned than in 
Texas. Almost every public gathering during 1834 and 1835 
denounced them in terrible terms. The Provisional Govern- 
ment, organized at San Felipe in the autumn of 1835, 
closed the land office until affairs should become more set- 
tled. The Congress of the Republic in 1840 conducted a 
thorough investigation of these so-called land frauds, and 
a vast amount of information was gathered and much of it 
written in the legislative journals. 



118 



Gonzales 

But for the most part those whose names were connected 
with these ventures, earned absolution in the Revolution. 

Bowie fell at the Alamo, Grant at Refugio. 

Frank Johnson was in the siege of Bexar. They were 
not bad men merely because they coveted land in large 
quantities. 

"Their bones are dust, 
Their good swords rust. 
Their souls are with the saints, 
We trust." 

Gonzales. 

After reducing the State Government in Coahuila Gen- 
eral Cos came on to Bexar with a considerable army, where 
he stationed himself among a fairly congenial :\Iexican pop- 
ulation. Through the military authorities there, an order 
was issued for the arrest of some of the more outspoken men 
in the Colonies for seditious utterances. R. :\I. Williamson 
(three-legged Willie) had made a very patriotic 4th of July 
address which was considered treasonable. Colonel Travis 
had led a small force which had forcibly expelled the 
]\Iexican garrison at Anahuac in July. Lorenza De Zavala 
had fled from ]\Iexico and taken up his residence on 
Buffalo Bayou below Harrisburg. These men and others 
were to be arrested and sent to Mexico for trial. Some let- 
ters which were sent from Cos to Colonel Ugartechea told 
of active plans to punish the Colonies, and all was at white 
heat as the early autumn approached. A general consulta- 
tion was called to meet at San Felipe in October. The 
militia was being organized everywhere, and no man now 
doubted that war to the death was inevitable. Amid these 
stirring scenes so full of apprehensions when the convention 

119 



Gonzales 

was about to assemble and men were everywhere leaving 
their homes for military service, a tremendous comet sud- 
denly appeared and filled the evening skies with a wierd, 
sinister light. 

In the lonely plantation homes where the husband and 
father was away in the gathering army this strange astral 
wanderer left a feeling of terror and awe w^hich was daily 
augmented by the wildest rumors of iMexican invasion and 
Indian uprisings. 

The storm broke down at Gonzales in October, when 
Colonel Ugarteehea, the same who was driven out of 
Velaseo in 1832, came with a small detachment of men to 
take away a cannon which the Government had furnished 
the settlement some years before for defense against the 
Indians. Anticipating this attempt several hundred Texans 
had hurriedly gathered, and the first skirmish, sometimes 
called our Lexington, resulted in the very hurried return 
of the Mexicans to Bexar without the cannon. 

There were stirring scenes on the Guadaloupe in these 
October days. Colonel John H. jMoore with a company of 
men from LaGrange was among the first to arrive. Fannin 
was there with the Brazoria guards. R. M. Coleman was 
there with men from Bastrop. A small detachment from 
the Colorado under Thomas Alley were the first to come. 
Austin, w^ho had been released from prison a few months 
before, had landed at the mouth of the Brazos in September, 
and had ridden by San Felipe, thence on to Gonzales, where 
he arrived on October 10th. 

The two Whartons, Wm. J. Eussell and Wm. H. Jack 
came across from Brazoria. 

Years later Russell told of an interesting incident he 
witnessed between Austin and Wm. H. Wharton. They 
had been estranged and for some years were not on si^eak- 



120 



Gonzales 

ing terms. AVharton had been a bitter critic of Austin and 
had attacked his pacific policies in public print. 

When Russell and AVharton reached the log house in 
Gonzales where they were to spend the night, the}' were 
told that Colonel Austin had preceded them a few hours 
and was in the next room. Russell, with Wharton's permis- 
sion, went in to speak Avith Austin and offer reconciliation. 

He says that when he entered the room Austin was lying 
on a bhmket utterly exhausted from a long day's ride in 
the rain, that his thin, pale face showed ghastly in the faint 
light of a candle by which he was Avriting. 

The buoyant boy who fourteen years before had ridden 
to Bexar to begin his Colonial enterprise was at forty-one a 
broken, dying man. 

When Russell addressed him he Avas glad to forget all dif- 
ferences and in almost sepulchral voice bemoaned the plight 
of ''poor Texas." 

The next day they chose him Commander-in-Chief of the 
'^ Federal Army." When he Avas returning to Texas from 
his first visit to Mexico in 1823, the military commandant 
at ^Monterey had commissioned him a Lieutenant Colonel so 
that during the colonial days he had been Colonel Austin. 

He Avas uoav General Austin, Avith an army of 600 men, 
and the first order he issued on the day of his election Avas 
to cross the Guadaloupe and on to Bexar. 

The most interesting picture of these Gonzales days that 
has come to us is found in the delightful narrative of Noah 
SmithAviek, a young man who Avas one of these volunteers, 
and marched Avith them to San Antonio. Sixty years later 
the old man dictated his recollections to his daughter, avIio 
AA^rote in pleasing style : 

"Colonel Milam joined us at Gonzales. He had recently 
escaped a Mexican prison and his Avardrobe Avas much 

121 



The Consultation 

depleted. He was more than six feet and his pantaloons 
and sleeves were far too short for his stature. Buckskin 
breeches were the nearest approach to uniform, and they 
were of every variety and complexion — some too short, 
others too long. Here a broad brimmed sombrero over- 
shadowed a military cap and a tall bee gum would ride 
along with a coonskin cap with tail hanging down behind as 
all well regulated tails should do. Here a big American 
horse loomed above a Spanish pony or a skittish mustang 
pranced along with a methodical mule. Here a bulky roll 
of quilts jostled a bundle of blankets or more apt a buffalo 
robe, or a gaudy counterpane woven by tender hands with 
no shadow of presentiment that it should be a winding 
sheet. 

' ' In lieu of canteens each soldier carried a Spanish gourd. 
So with the old cannon flag flying and the artillery (the 
one cannon) mounted on a wooden wheeled wagon driven 
by teams of oxen, w^e filed out of Gonzales and took up our 
march on to San Antonio. At the Cibola Creek, Sam Hous- 
ton came up with us. It was my first sight of him. I have 
a vivid picture of him now as he rode into our camp alone 
mounted on a small yellow Spanish stallion, his feet almost 
touching the ground. He almost immediately returned to 
San Felipe to attend the convention." 

And now we must leave the buckskin army on its way to 
Bexar and foregather with those w^ho sat in the consulta- 
tion. 

The Consultation. 

In the midsummer of 1835, the local committee of safety 
at San Felipe had proposed that each jurisdiction through- 
out Texas send one member to San Felipe, and that these 



122 



The Consultation 

members compose a temporary committee of safety pend- 
ing the general convention which was to assemble in the 
autumn. This suggestion was acted upon, and K. R. Royal 
of Matagorda was chosen to preside over this council. It 
acted as a kind of clearing house for revolutionary activi- 
ties and was the nearest approach to a governmental body 
winch prevailed in the interim. 

When the consultation met and was organized, the Gen- 
eral Council, as the Central Committee was called, wound 
up its affairs and made a final report to the convention, 
which assumed governmental functions. 

It met on October 15th, but was adjourned from day to 
day to November 1st. awaiting the arrival of the delegations. 
R, R. Royal called the convention to order, and on motion 
of Sam Houston, of Nacogdoches, Doctor Branch T. Archer 
was chosen to preside. 

It fell his lot to make what we now call the keynote 
speech, which he did without unnecessarj^ .rhetoric. His 
address is copied in the journal of the Consultation, and 
one reading it now after the lapse of years is impressed with 
its calm dignity. He recommended, 

(a) A declaration of causes. 

(b) The organization of a provisional Government. 

(c) A military organization. 

(d) A conciliatory arrangement with the Indians. 

(e) That the recent fraudulent land grants be looked 
into. 

The first brisk discussion arose over the declaration of 
causes. The convention was much divided as to Avhether 
there should be a declaration of fealty to the ^Mexican con- 
stitution of 1824, and a last final effort to maintain rela- 
tions with the Republic, or a declaration of independence. 



123 



The Consultation 

John Austin Wharton, delegate from Brazoria, l^'d tht,* 
fight for an immediate declaration of independence, bnt 
Sam Houston and other older men urged a last stand for 
the Federal constitution. Austin favored this course. 
There was a hope among the Texans, even at this late hour, 
that there would be a faction in Mexico opposed to Santa 
Anna's usurpations, who would join Texas in a fight, to 
preserve the constitution, and to this more than any other 
influence the convention yielded in the last sad effort to 
uphold the IMexican constitution after every Mexican State 
had succumbed. 

Texas was soon undeceived in this vain hope, and when 
the next convention met in the following March, a declara- 
tion of independence was adopted at the opening hour and 
after that they proceeded to other business. In many re- 
spects the Consultation of 1835 was the most interesting 
convention which ever assembled in Texas. It was the 
third All Texas Convention that had met at San Felipe 
and the last, for the one in March met at Washington, on 
the Brazos. 

A plan for a provisional government was made with 
great care and it provided for a Governor, a Lieutenant- 
Governor and a General Council with a member from each 
municipality. The names of Henry Smith and Austin were 
placed before the convention for Governor. Smith was 
chosen, for it was designed to send Austin as a commission- 
er to the United States. James W. Robinson, of Nacogdo- 
ches, was made Lieutenant-Governor. Article 14 of the 
Plan for Provisional Government closed the land office 
"during the unsettled and agitated condition of the coun- 
try," so that no land grants could be made, and none were 
made until after the organization of the Republic in 1S36. 

Amono^ the manv worthv thinofs done in this vear, none 



124 



The Consultation 

speaks louder in the commeudation of that generation of 
men than this precautionary act of closing the land office 
to protect the public domain. 

The new Government was without money or credit, and 
its land was the only possible source of revenue, and though 
they were in a death struggle and knew not where financial 
support was to be had, they placed the public domain in 
safe keeping for their children. How nobly they discharged 
this trust should ever be told to their praise. 

Only a few years ago a wild scheme was proposed to 
found the Bank of Texas upon the credit of the school fund 
which came from this domain, but the hallowed memory 
of the fathers who kept it intact in the dark hours of the 
revolution frustrated the design. 

Stephen F. Austin, AVilliam H. Wharton and Doctor 
Branch T. Archer were chosen commissioners to the United 
States and urged to proceed there at once and use every 
means to arouse sympath}^ and procure assistance in the 
States. 

The convention adjourned on November 14th, but issued 
a call for another to meet at Washington, on the Brazos, 
on ^larch 1, 1836. The difficulties which confronted the 
new^ Government are aptly stated in a single sentence of 
Governor Smith's first message to the Council on Novem- 
ber 16th : 

''We have to call system out of chaos, to start the wheels 
of government clogged by discordant interests. Without 
funds, without munitions of war, with an army in the 
field contending against a powerful foe, these are the aus- 
pices under which we are forced to make a beginning." 

In the meantime while the Consultation deliberated and 
the General Council sat, the Federal army, as General Aus- 
tin called it, was investing Bexar. 



125 



The Siege of Bexar 

The Siege of Bexar. 

The patriot army reached the suburbs of San Antonio 
in the last days of October, 1835. There were at that time 
about seven hundred men in the command. Austin divided 
them in two divisions, one of which was stationed below the 
city in the command of James Bowie, the other up the 
river under Edward Burleson. 

There was much division of opinion as to whether the 
city should be stormed, and one studying the military tac- 
tics of the campaign is impressed with the entire want of 
discipline or vigorous command. Austin's health was bad 
and he had no military experience. While he was neither 
lacking in courage nor firmness, yet he was by no means an 
ideal commander. Then, too, the volunteer army was an im- 
promptu affair. ]\Iany of the men had left their families 
on exposed frontiers and would go home the first opportun- 
iry. The whole army was in a fair way to have disbanded 
and gone home, but was much encouraged by the arrival of 
the New Orleans Grays on November 21st. Though there 
were only sixty-four men in the company, yet it was the 
first installment of the effective help v.diich came from the 
States to take part in the Revolution. Their arrival marks 
such an important and interesting chapter in our affairs 
that 1 feel justified in copying a page from the interesting 
history of John Henry Brown describing the event : 

''Late in the afternoon of November 21st, the New Or- 
leans Grays, afterwards so distinguished for gallantry, the 
first to join the standard of Texas from the United States, 
arrived in the vicinity, and on the 22nd, reported themselves 
for duty. They numbered sixty-four men and had sailed 
from New Orleans in October on the schooner 'Columbus' 
for the mouth of the Brazos with a supply of provisions and 



126 



The Siege of Bexar 

military stores contributed by the people of New Orleans. 
They were received with great enthusiasm at Velasco and 
Quintana, where ladies waved their handkerchiefs and men 
fired artillery. At Brazoria they were received with a yet 
more intense enthusiasm — flowers were strewn along their 
line of march and they were entertained there by Mrs. 
Jane B. Long, widow of General Long, often called the 
Mother of Texas. From Brazoria they marched on foot all 
of the way to San Antonio, stopping for a day at Victoria. 
Of all the companies which came out from the States, 
they stand out preeminently. Many of them were mur- 
dered with Fannin's men four months later." 

On November 24th, Austin and William H. Wharton 
left the army to accept the mission to the United States to 
which they had been chosen by the Consultation a few days 
before. The army balloted for a Commander-in-Chief to 
take Austin's place, and Colonel Edward Burleson Avas 
chosen. Burleson was not a great commander, but he was 
a great fighter, and was long identified with Texas, and a 
glimpse of his eventful life will be interesting to this gener- 
ation, for the name of Burleson has been an honored one 
in Texas history. He was born in North Carolina in 1798 
and lived on the frontier all his long life. His grandfather 
and an uncle were killed by Indians in Eastern Tennessee, 
and an aunt was shot, tomahawked and scalped in the ATild 
West where the City of Nashville now stands. 

The following interesting episode is told of him by his 
kinsman, the late Doctor Rufus C. Burleson: ''When 
Edward was fourteen years old, he accompanied his father 
on an expedition into Alabama in pursuit of a roving band 
of Cherokees. The party was commanded by Jonathan 
Burleson, his uncle. The Indians planned to deceive their 
pursuers into a pow wow and massacre them, and each Avar- 

127 



The Siege of Bexar 

rior concealed a knife under his garments ready for this 
wholesale homicide. As Burleson's men approached, they 
were met by an Indian warrior with an invitation to drink, 
which was the highest hospitality. The Captain reached 
out to take the proffered hand, when the Indian, quick as a 
flash, drew his knife and made a lunge at Captain Burle- 
son, who sprang away and escaped injury. The Indian and 
the white man stood face to face, but the troopers could 
not fire for fear of hitting their Captain. It was a tragic 
moment when an instant meant eternity for some one. The 
boy was quicker to think and act than any of them and 
sprang forward firing as he did so and the Indian lay 
dead. The lad accompanied his father through the Tecum- 
seh wars and w^as at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, where 
Houston won a wound which he carried all his life." 

In 1826 he came to Texas and settled on the Colorado 
just below Bastrop, which for thirt}^ years was the most 
dangerous of Texas frontiers. 

He was at the Battle of San Jacinto, and lived for many 
years after these stirring days, and served one term as 
Vice-President of the Republic. Doctor Burleson was at his 
death bed when the old frontiersman had his summons, and 
relates his last conversation : ' ' My life has been a rude one, 
and I have been a man of blood from my boyhood, but I 
have never fought for revenge. I have been in thirty-two 
battles but have lived to this old age and go now to meet my 
Maker." Burleson was chosen commander on the 14th of 
November, and on the 4th of December an attack was be- 
gun which resulted in the capture of San Antonio after 
three days assault. But the world will always give the 
chief credit for this voctory to Ben Milam, who led the 
attack and fell in the fight. 



128 




OLD ETCHING OF GENERAL HOUSTON, MADE IN 1837 



Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar 

Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar. 

It may be an exaggeration to ascribe to a single man the 
victor}^ won by thousands, but we have come to link the 
name of the successful commander or bold leader with the 
battle won so that their names become synonyms. 

Houston has so thoroughly monopolized the fame of 
San Jacinto that for years while he was in the United 
States Senate he was called ''Old Sam Jacinto." 

And so it will be, as long as the story of our colonial days 
is told, that Ben Milam will be known as the hero of the 
Battle of Bexar. He was a man of wonderful personality, 
taller than his fellows, powerful in mold and as handsome 
as one of Arthur's fabled knights. 

On December 4, 1835, he returned from a successful 
scouting expedition towards the Rio Grande, and found 
much indecision as to whether the city should be stormed or 
the siege continued. 

He walked among his countrymen and heard their quib- 
blings and how some would fight, and others would wait 
and go home and renew the campaign in the spring, and 
without a council of war he made the bold defiance, ' ' Who 
will go into San Antonio with Old Ben Milam f" And hav- 
ing thus advertised the excursion, he was quick to capitalize 
the enthusiasm it produced, and that very day the battle 
began which raged for six days and resulted in the capitu- 
lation of the Mexican Army. 

On the third day Milam was killed, and was buried where 
he fell. And now thousands pass each day along the 
busy street of the city just off which stands the soldier's 
sepulcher. 

And as we go on in this narrative and leave behind us 
the ashes of our hero dead, I cannot refrain from relating 



129 



Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar 

something of the life of Milam, for we shall not meet him 
again in these pages. 

He was born in Kentucky in 1791, a year older than 
Austin and two years older than Houston. He was a sol- 
dier in the war of 1812, and as early as 1817 he and David 
G. Burnet were alone among the Comanches out on the 
h'eadvyaters of the Brazos. In 1819 he joined General 
Long and Felix Trespelacios in the ill fated Long's ex- 
pedition into Texas. He was in Mexico at the close of the 
war for independence, and was among the first to apply for 
ail Empresario contract, but had to await the organization 
of the State Government and got his grant in 1825 (along 
Red River). In an effort to finance his project, he went 
to England in 1827. A nephew of his who was a very 
'small boy at that time and who lived to be a very old man, 
once told me the story of Milam's romance. He had a 
sweetheart when he left for England and she was to await 
his return. But when he was away another frontiersman 
rode that way and persuaded her to break her vows with 
the absent lover. She had some grounds for apprehen- 
sion, for Ben was such a rover, and she did not know but 
that the next news of him might be that he had embarked 
in some enterprise on the other side of the world, or had 
gone to war with the Turks. 

When IMilam returned to his Red River Colony, he 
brought with him silks and laces and much feminine finery 
he had bought for his bride, aud this nephew told me how 
his Uncle Ben gave all these treasures to his (the lad's) 
mother, and took another journey dow^n into Mexico. 

In 1835 he was again among his colonists on the Red 
River. In those days there was much confusion caused by 
the Eleven Leaguers who were abroad in the land locating 
eleven league grants which were being handed out by the 

130 



Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar 

Coahuila Government, and which often conflicted with the 
earlier Empresario grants. 

IMilam undertook his last trip into Mexico in an effort 
to settle these tangled affairs, and left Red River with a 
few cold biscuits and some parched coffee to ride to the 
City of Mexico. He was at Monclova when the State 
Government collapsed in 1835. 

I cannot better close this narrative of Milam than by a 
literal quotation from the address of William H. Wharton 
delivered at the Hall of the Academy of INIusic in New York 
City on April 26, 1836. Wharton, with Austin and Archer, 
had gone as Commissioners to the United States in the 
preceding December. The}' had gone through many of the 
States rousing sj^mpath}^ and urging assistance for Texas. 
They made addresses in the leading cities. Two of these 
have come down to us and are classics of the period of the 
Revolution. One is the address of Austin made at Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, in February; the other Colonel Wharton's 
New York speech just referred to, and indeed it is the 
great masterpiece of our colonial history. The hall was 
crowded with an audience of thousands, for interest in 
Texas was very great everywhere in the States. News of the 
fall of the Alamo and the Massacre of Goliad had reached 
the East and had been published in the daily papers. At 
the time this address was delivered, only the most awful in- 
formation from Texas had reached the outside world, 
though the battle of San Jacinto had been fought five daj^s 
before. But neither Wharton nor his hearers knew this, 
and they hourly expected news of even greater disaster than 
the Alamo or Goliad. 

Wharton sought to arouse his great audience and all 
who would read his address to active support for Texas, 
for he knew that his people were in the death struggle, and 



131 



Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar 

he knew of no more stirring stor^^ than that of the last days 
of Ben Milam. 

Here is his narrative : Governor Viesca of Coahuila was 
overtaken by Cos and imprisoned. It was the misfortune 
of the lamented Milam, who was returning from Mexico 
City to his home in Texas, to be found in company with the 
Governor. For this dreadful offence, he too was put in 
prison. 

After some months imprisonment, he escaped and started 
for Texas. In order to elude pursuit, he travelled six hun- 
dred miles without a road, prosecuting his journey by night 
and secreting himself during the day. 

Throughout this dangerous and protracted journey, he 
subsisted on some few articles of food which he had con- 
trived to obtain on his escape from prison, for he dared not 
show his face at any habitation. Early in October he had 
gotten into Texas, and as he limped along the road he 
heard the approach of soldiers, and thinking he was about 
to be overtaken by his enemies, he hid himself by the road- 
side. To his great joy he heard them talking his own 
tongue, and saw a company of Texas volunteers sweeping 
on their way to Goliad. He made himself known to them 
and went with them to Goliad and Gonzales. Though he 
had been an officer in the Army of the United States and 
a soldier in the war of 1812, he joined the ranks as a private 
and went on with the patriot army to San Antonio. On 
the evening of December 4th, he stepped from the ranks 
and beat up for volunteers to storm the Castle of San An- 
tonio, and began an attack against heavy odds. 

''They entered the town to conquer or die, 
Firm paced and slow, a fearless front they 

formed, 
Still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm." 



132 



Sam Houston 

For six successive days and nights, they grappled with 
the foe, but the life of their leader was the price of their 
victory. 

"Oft shall the soldier think of thee, 
Thou dauntless leader of the brave. 

Who on the heights of tyranny, 

Won freedom — and a glorious grave. 

"And o'er thy tomb shall pilgrims weep. 
And utter prayers in murnuirs low. 

That peaceful be the Hero's sleep, 
Who conquered San Antonio. 

"Enshrined on honor's deathless scroll, 
A nation's thanks shall be thy fame, 
Long as her beauteous rivers roll, 
Shall Freedom 's votaries hymn thy name. ' ' 

This simple but beautiful poem dedicated to Milam had 
been published in a New York paper a few weeks before. 
The surrender of Cos' army left Texas free from Mexican 
soldiers. They were paroled and sent south. It was now 
December, but in a few short weeks thej' came again, Cos, 
with Santa Anna, Sesma, Filisola and Almonte, for now 
we are at the threshold of Eighteen Hundred and Thirty- 
six. 

Sam Houston. 

Houston will ever be the outstanding name in Texas liia- 
tory. It w^ould be useless to attempt to have it otherwise, 
though the student of our annals should reach a different 
verdict as to the merit of the men who wrought in the 



133 



Sam Houston 

scheme of our destiny. His tragic appearance into our 
affairs and the critical hour of his coming, the great suc- 
cess of the campaign of 1836, his long and eventful career, 
wliich only ended with secession, which he bitterly opposed 
a quarter of a century later — add to all these a stern, ster- 
ling character and a personality rareh' found among the 
heroes of any age, and one will not wonder why Sam Hous- 
ton has become by universal consent the hero of our his- 
tory. He was an actor of great skill, a spectacular man 
wholly unlike the modest, reticent Austin. When Houston 
came, Austin was dying. Fourteen years of privation, 
labor without ceasing, days and nights on horseback across 
trackless wilds, had written deep traces in the sad, white 
face which William J. Russell saw in the flickering candle 
light that October night at Gonzales. Houston came with 
the flush of victory in 1836, and December of that year 
Austin died. 

In 1832, when the first rumblings of the coming Revo- 
lution Avere heard. Houston, who was yet under forty, was 
living among the Cherokee Indians in Arkansas. 

He had resigned the governorship of Tennessee and sought 
this voluntary exile three years before, and during all this 
retirement he is known to have entertained thoughts of com- 
ing to Texas. Wild rumors of his intentions to lead the 
Cherokees in an attack upon IMexican authority in Texas 
assumed such proportions as to cause President Jackson, 
always his devoted friend, to write hi™ a persoual letter of 
remonstrance. There has been and will be much specula- 
tion fis tu whether there was any understanding between 
Houston and Jackson which preceded Houston's coming. 

While many circumstances would suggest this, yet I do 
not believe it existed. That they both hoped for just such 
a result as obtained, is but natural. 



134 



Sam Houston 

Franklin Williams, grandson of General Houston, has 
the original passport issued to Houston for his first journey 
into Texas, which was then a foreign country. 

''Sam Houston Passport 

"I, the undersigned, Acting Secretary of War, do hereby 
request all the Tribes of Indians, whether in amity with 
the United States, or as yet not allied to them by Treaties, 
to permit safely and freely to pass through their respective 
Territories, — 

— General Sam Houston — 
a citizen of the United States, thirty-eight years of age, 
six feet two inches in stature, brown hair, and light com- 
plexion ; and in case of need, to give him all lawful aid and 
protection. 

' ' Given under my hand and the impression 
of the SEAL of the department of war, at the 
City of Washington, this Sixth day of August, 
(Seal) in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-two, and of the Indepen- 
dence of the United States, the fifty sev- 
enth. 

"(Signed) John Robb, 

"Acting Secretary of War." 

Armed with this passport, he came from Arkansas via 
Nacogdoches and San Felipe to San Antonio in December, 
1832, where he had a conference with me :MAxican author- 
ities and with a delegation of Comanche Indians, who u-ov^ 
sometimes roving residents of the States. I have never 
been able to find any tangible reason for this strange visit 
of Houston under a commission from the American Seere- 

135 



Sam Houston 

tary of War. Upon his return to Nachitoches, Louisiana, iu 
January, 1833, he wrote President Jackson, advising, ''Hav- 
ing been as far as Bexar in the Province of Texas, I had an 
interview with the Comanche Indians ; I am in possession of 
information which will be of interest to you and may be cal- 
culated to forward your views if you should entertain any 
touching the acquisition of Texas, etc." The entire letter 
is devoted to a discussion of Texas' internal affairs and the 
anxiety of the Americans in Texas for union with the 
States, with a mere mention of the ostensible mission which 
had taken him to Texas. He advised that a convention 
would be held in Texas in April, and ' ' I expect to be pres- 
ent and will advise you of the course adopted." He did 
attend the 1833 convention as a delegate from San Augus- 
tine. In 1831: he was back among the Cherokees in Arkan- 
sas, but late in that year he took up his residence at Nacog- 
doches, and we find him a delegate from that municipality 
to the consultation which convened at San Felipe in Octo- 
ber, 1835. 

Just before the consultation met, he rode down to the 
Guadaloupe for a visit to the patriot army, then on its 
way to San Antonio. Noah Smithwick, who was with the 
army, tells of his arrival mounted on a yellow Spanish stud, 
and that he made a speech and rode back to the Brazos for 
the convention. 

He was a strong person in the consaltation ; a maii of rare 
experience in governmental matters, and looked upon as 
the confidential friend ^f the President of the United States. 
He had rloy^ definitely decided to cast his lot with Texas 
and aimed at leadership. On November 14th, the day be- 
fore Edward Burleson was elected viva voce to command the 
army at Bexar, when Austin left for the United States, the 
General Council sitting in San Felipe selected Houston Com- 



136 



Sam Houston 

mander-in-Chief of the Texas armies. But this high sound- 
ing phrase was a bitter mockery for Texas had no govern- 
ment, no war chest, no army. 

After the fall of Bexar in December, the volunteers took 
leave for their homes, only a small garrison remaining. The 
months which followed were full of confusion and gloom. 
The General Council at San Felipe degenerated into a vi- 
cious quarrel, poor old Governor Smith writing philippic 
messages of denunciation, and a majority against him re- 
fusing to act upon any plan he would suggest. There were 
those in Texas who j^et entertained the fond hope that a 
party in Mexico would rise to co-operate in resistance to 
Santa Anna, and there was considerable sentiment imme- 
diately following the success at Bexar for an invasion of 
Mexico. 

James Fannin, whose martyrdom a few months later 
silenced criticism, was the chief in the proposed Mexican 
invasion. Instead of a concerted action for defense against 
the large ^Mexican army now known to be mustering for ap- 
proach by way of San Antonio, Fannin and Doctor John 
Grant and others with authority from the General Council, 
and without co-operation with Houston, wasted the early 
months of 1836 and frustrated Houston's plans for an or- 
ganized defense. 

In the mad political strife of the late fifties, when Sena- 
tor Houston would not go with the extreme secessionists and 
left the Democratic part}^, bitter attacks were made on him 
and much effort w^as made to show that he was a coward, 
that the battle of San Jacinto was won in spite of him, and 
volumes of invectives were written against him. 

I have read all the evidences that are available and am 
persuaded that no case is made against the old hero. Those 
best able to judge him were his comrades in the 1836 cam- 



137 



Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six 

paign. The first presidential election was held within 
four months after the battle. B}^ common consent he was 
nominated and elected to the presidency' almost by acclama- 
tion, although both Austin and Henry Smith were his op- 
ponents. He was again chosen President of the Republic 
after Lamar's term; and when Texas was admitted to the 
Union he was chosen U. S. Senator almost without dissent, 
when the Legislature which elected him was filled with men 
who went through the San Jacinto campaign. 

And as the ages come and go. in remote years yet to be, 
when other names of the colonial epoch are forgotten, this 
strange, stalwart, tragic man will stand out not only the 
most interesting character in our history but one of the most 
remarkable men of all time. 



Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Six. 

This is the all-eventful year in Texas history. 

The Declaration of Independence was made at Washing- 
ton on the Brazos on March 2nd. 

The Alamo fell on March 6th. 

Fannin fell at Goliad March 27th. 

San Jacinto was fought on April 21st. 

The first presidential election was held and Houston 
elected President in September. 

The first Congress of the Republic met at Columbia Oc- 
tober 3rd. 

Austin died December 27th. 

The dawn of the year saAV a small garrison of about 150 
men at Bexar, and though it was known that a large Mexi- 
can army was being organized for invasion, there was no 
plan or concerted action for defense. 



138 



Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six 

The quarrel between Governor Smith and the Council 
had reached the riot stage, and he had been deposed and 
James W. Robinson, of Nacogdoches, Lieutenant Governor, 
reigned in his stead. And in passing I must say a word 
about ' ' Lawyer Robinson. ' ' 

After the Council had ceased to function, when the con- 
vention met in March, he .joined the army and was at the 
Battle of San Jacinto. He was one of the first District 
Judges under the Republic, and in 1842 was attending court 
at San Antonio when a Mexican marauding force, under 
WoU, captured the city, court and all, and Judge Robinson 
found himself in a Mexican prison. Tiring of prison life, 
he opened an intrigue with Santa Anna, who happened to 
be in power again at that particular interval, and wTote the 
Mexican President a letter advising that since he (Robin- 
son) was a lawyer of some prominence in his own country, 
he might be useful if allowed his freedom in persuading the 
people of Texas to return to Mexican sovereignty. Santa 
Anna seemed impressed with the idea and allow^ed Lawyer 
Robinson, yet in prison, to open negotiations with President 
Houston, who was then serving his second term. Houston 
seems to have humored the joke, and Robinson got out of 
Mexico to complete his negotiations, which were dropped as 
soon as he got home. Shortly after the discovery of gold in 
California in 1849, both Robinson and Henry Smith joined 
an emigrant train across the desert, and these veteran 
enemies travelled together in a wagon train for a thousand 
miles, each nursing his old time hatred for the other. Judge 
Robinson's wife, Sarah, a beautiful and accomplished wo- 
man, who had come to Texas with him in 1828, went with 
him to California and was still living there fifty years 
later. They had gotten their headright league in Vehlein 's 
Colony and after Robinson's death in California many years 



139 



Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six 

later, Sarah sold this league. About twenty years ago I 
represented one of the owners of this land in a suit brought 
by the descendants of James W. Robinson of Ohio. They 
alleged and proved that he had eloped from Ohio in 1827 
with Sarah, leaving a Avife and children, and these grand- 
children came to claim their inheritance from their prodigal 
ancestor. IMaybe this little bit of scandal should remain 
untold. But it is part of the judicial history of San Jacinto 
County, where depositions were filed proving these facts. 
At the beginning of 1836, Lieutenant Governor James W. 
Robinson dominated in general council. James Fannin and 
Doctor John Grant and Frank Johnson were planning an 
invasion of Mexico by Matamoros. They had fewer than 
500 men, and were without means of transportation or sup- 
plies. General Houston was unable to exercise any author- 
ity, though he was in name Commander-in-Chief of the 
army. He bided the assembling of the convention, which 
was called to meet in March, and used the interval in a 
series of conversations with the Indians, whose attitude w^as 
a matter of much concern at this juncture. If the Comanches 
and Cherokees had gone on the war path against the colo- 
nists early in 1836, the Americans would have been wiped 
out. All available men were being pressed to join the army 
to repel the Mexican invasion. Families were left unpro- 
tected on a wide frontier, which reached from San Antonio 
to the Sabine. There were bands of Indian warriors all 
along this frontier who could have swept over the settle- 
ments in a week. Houston went ^n person among these 
people and held thirteen councils with them. He was a 
Cherokee Chief, and all his life loved and was loved by the 
Indians. To him we owe the fact that these warriors did 
not draw the bow during the campaign of 1836. 



140 



Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six 

Franklin \Villianis, a grandson of General Houston, re- 
cently related in my hearing an account of a pow wow be- 
tween Houston and the Indians which had been told him by 
his mother A delegation of Cherokees came several days 
journey to see him. They had ridden day and night for 
several days. They came within a few hundred yards of 
the house, and after hobbling their tired horses they sat 
in a circle under a tree, leaving an open or vacant space m 
the circle. They did not look towards the house or make 
any pretense of seeing Houston. Nor did he see them, but 
pretended to^ ignore them for a time. After a while 
he moved and occupied the vacant place in the circle, but 
no word was spoken, or glance of recognition given. The 
pipe was passed from hand to hand and they all puffed it. 
And after a long dignified silence, their spokesman began 
the conversation and made known the purpose of their 
journey. The President heard their story, and promised 
them redress, and then he bade them kill a beef for their 
refreshment, for they had not eaten during the long jour- 
ney in which they had ridden day and night, nor had they 

slept. 

After they had gorged the beef without the detail ot 
cooking it, the entire delegation lay under the trees and 
slept for a day and a night, and then they silently mounted 
their horses and retraced their long way whence they came, 
riding without rest until they reached their people. 

One cannot but wish that the white brother had some- 
thing of this great gift of golden silence. 

It would be hard indeed to picture a darker prospect 
than fronted our people at the dawn of the year 1836. 
The President of Mexico, with an army of most ten 
thousand men, was moving towards the border. Fannin, 
Grant, Johnson and other visionary incompetents were 

141 



The Convention of March, 1836 

trying to lead five hundred men to an invasion of Mexico. 
A mere handful of volunteers garrisoned the outpost at 
San Antonio. 

The General Council, our governing body, had gone to 
pieces. There were not 1000 men under arms in all Texas. 
Without a government, without an army, without a treas- 
ury, without credit, the Colonies faced dire disaster at the 
dawn of 1836. 



The Convention of March, 1836. 

For the fourth time in our history, a convention of all 
Texas met on March 1, 1836, at Washington on the Brazos. 
W^ithout a moment's delay, a permanent organization was 
had with Eichard Ellis, from Red River, as Chairman. 
The General Council was still in session at San Felipe, but 
its conspicuous failures earned it the contempt of the new 
convention. An effort was made to have the convention 
go into merits of the quarrel between Governor Smith and 
the Council, but the convention hurried to the tasks be- 
fore it and declined to take any notice of the controversy, 
and the whole pitiful farce passed into history. It is fair 
to Governor Smith to say that that generation exonerated 
his fidelity and integrity, but probably not his judgment. 

As soon as the convention was ready for business, George 
C. Childress, of the Red River country, moved the appoint- 
ment of a committee of five to draft a declaration of inde- 
pendence. Tradition tells that he had already prepared 
the draft of the declaration and that it had been approved 
by Houston and others to whom it had been submitted. The 
committee brought in the draft the next morning, and when 
it was read, on motion of General Houston, it was unani- 



142 



The Convention of March, 1836 

mously adopted early in the morning of March 2, 1836,' 
which by the way was his 43rd birthday. 

On the 4th Houston was again chosen Commander-in- 
Chief, and on Sunday morning, March 6th, the same hour 
the Alamo fell, he left Washington with an escort of four 
men riding towards San Antonio. At that time it was 
known to Houston and to the convention that there was no 
hope for Travis, and that no help could be expected from 
Fannin and Grant and those mad, misled men who had 
lately moved towards remote Matamoros while Santa Anna's 
army marched directly into the heart of Texas. 

In a cold Llarch rain, the five horsemen rode west 
while sad, sober faces bade them good-bye and turned to 
the business of the convention. 

Speaking of this occasion, General Houston said many 
years later : ' ' The only hope lay in the few men assembled 
at Gonzales. The Alamo was known to be under siege, Fan- 
nin was known to be embarrassed, Ward, Morris and John- 
son destroyed. All seemed to bespeak a calamity of the 
most direful character. It was under these auspices that 
the General started with an escort of two aides, a captain 
and a boy, yet he was sent to produce a nation and defend 
a people." 

Travis' last message sent from the Alamo on March 3rd 
reached Washington on Sunday morning, just before Hous- 
ton left, and about the hour the Alamo fell, and was read 
in the convention at its opening session on that day, but 
there was nothing the convention could do except to adopt 
a resolution that "1,000 copies of the letter he printed," and 
this they arranged for. 

With independence declared and Houston on the way 
west, the convention addressed itself to the formation of 
our first constitution, for our fathers were firm believers in 



143 



The Convention of March, 1836 

constitutional government. With them it was as natural 
for a new government to have a solemnly written constitu- 
tion as for an infant to be christened and bear his father's 
name. 

In these awful environments, the constitution of March, 
1836, was written, debated and adopted, and prepared for 
submission to the people for ratification. But no man knew 
when if ever there could be a submission at a general elec- 
tion, and until this was done a government ad interim was 
provided. David G. Burnet was chosen President and the 
Mexican-Spaniard Lorenza de Zavala, lately fled from 
Mexico to escape Santa Anna, was chosen Vice-President. 

The last hours of the convention, which finished its la- 
bors late on the night of March 17th, were hastened by a 
rumor that a Mexican army was near at hand. News of 
the fall of the Alamo had come by a courier on the 15th, 
but there was no unseeml}^ haste on the part of the con- 
vention. 

The constitution which was formulated by this convention 
was never formally enrolled or engrossed, and the original 
draft was taken away by H. S. Kimball, the Secretary, who 
was instructed to enroll it for presentation. He took it to 
Nashville, Tennessee, where it was published in one of the 
papers, from which it was republished in a Cincinnati pa- 
per, and from this Cincinnati publication it was copied in 
the first issue of Borden's paper, which was printed after 
the Revolution at Columbia on August 2nd. Late in the 
afternoon of the last day, the President left for Harris- 
burg, and there was only one family left in Washington on 
the Brazos. 

There are fifty-eight signers of the Declaration of In- 
dependence which this convention promulgated on March 
2nd. Forty of them were under forty years of age. Many 



144 



The Alamo 

of them were men highh^ educated and of rare experience. 
Nearly all of them came from the Southern States, eleven 
from the Carolinas. There were two native Texans, Jose 
Antonio Navarro and Francisco Kuis, both from Bexar. 
There was an Englishman, a Canadian, a Spaniard born 
in Madrid, an Irishman and a Scotchman. 

The leaders in Texas during all these years were for the 
most part slave-holding planters, and though that oft-called 
slave-holding oligarchy paid the extreme penalty in the 
next generation, yet its aggressiveness and love of dominion 
and empire won Texas and the great southwest for the 
American Union. 

The Alamo. 

At the beginning of the Revolution and for many years 
theretofore, an old Spanish Mission fortress stood on the 
San Antonio River about a mile from the center of the 
little city. It derived its name from the cottonwood trees 
which grew about it. Adjoining the chapel was a stone 
walled enclosure of about two city blocks, which had been 
erected as a protection against the Indians. After the 
patriot army had captured the city in December, 1835, 
many oi the volunteer soldiers had gone home, and those 
remaining were disorganized and without supplies. 

Colonel Neill remained nominally in charge of the gar- 
rison quartered in tlie Alamo, which, on January 14th, 
consisted of eighty-six men. 

Immediately following the fall of the city to the Texas 
army, the wild scheme was advanced for the invasion of 
Mexico by IMatamoros, and Frank W. Johnson, and the ill 
fated Scotchman, Doctor John Grant, persuaded a large 
number to join them in this fool's enterprise, and they 



145 



The Alamo 

forgathered at Goliad, San Patricio, and other places in 
that direction. 

All Texas knew at the dawn of 1836 that a large Mex- 
ican army was being formed to march upon Texas, and al- 
most daily rumors and confirmed reports came that these 
armies were approaching the Rio Grande. In the face 
of this deadly disaster, a sad state of affairs presented it- 
self. 

Governor Smith wrote letters and sent couriers and did. 
his utmost to get reinforcements to the Alamo, but the 
council deposed him and commissioned Fannin, Grant,, 
and Johnson to invade Mexico, though there were not 500 
men in sight for such an enterprise. Houston, Commander- 
in-Chief, had no army to command nor prospect of any. 
He advised that the garrison at the Alamo destroy the 
fortress and retreat east of the Guadaloupe, but his advice 
was ignored. He urged Fannin, who with several hundred 
men was near Goliad, to retreat to Victoria, but Fannin 
refused to recognize his authority. In January, Governor 
Smith sent Colonel Travis, who was recruiting on the Colo- 
rado, to relieve Colonel Niell in command at the Alamo, and 
in this way conferred on this young officer the boon of 
martyrdom and immortality. In February, as the Mex- 
ican army approached, Travis and James Bowie, who was 
now with him, began sending out couriers begging franti- 
cally for help, but always declaring that whether relief 
came they would defend to the last. 

As late as February 12th, after Travis knew that Santa 
Anna's army was approaching, he wrote Governor Smith, 
"With two hundred men I believe this place can be main- 
tained." 

On February 23rd, Travis reported the enemy in sight, 
and on that day a large army camped on the main plaza, a 

146 



The Alamo 

mile away, and the siege began and continued in a desultory 
way for ten days, during which time a bombardment was 
kept up, and the Mexican forces entirely surrounded the 
beleaguered fortress. 

In the early morning of March 1st, Captain Albert Martin 
with thirty-one men came through the Mexican lines from 
Gonzales, and took their places with the defenders, and 
near noon on March 3rd, the gallant James B. Bonham, who 
had been sent as a messenger to Fannin, rode back through 
the enemy lines to report no aid from that source. So that 
there were something more than one hundred and eighty 
men in the command at the end. Almost the same hour that 
Bonham came Travis sent John Smith with the last of his 
series of bold messages, w^hich reached the Colonies only 
after the Alamo had fallen. 

A council of war was held on March 4th, at which the 
Mexican Command decided to storm the fortress at dawn on 
Sunday morning, March 6th. General Castrillion was put 
in command of the immediate assault. The silence of the 
early dawn was broken by a shrill bugle blast which sum- 
moned the charge, and as the tramp of the on-rushing 
troops filled the March morning, a band from a nearby bat- 
tery struck up a Spanish air which was known as the assas- 
sin's song, and meant no mercy. In sight of the besieged 
men, a black flag floated from a steeple. Less than an 
hour elapsed from the first assault until the last defend^ir 
had fallen. 

Castrillion led the assault, and Santa Anna remained with 
a battery from Toluea camped to the south and safe from 
gunshot, where the band played the assassin's song wiiile 
the assault went on. 



147 



The Alamo 

On the same day and after the fort had fallen, he made 
an official report to the Secretary of War from which I 
take some interesting passages : 

' ' The scene offered bj^ the engagement was extraordinary. 
Twenty-one pieces of artillery w^as used with most perfect 
accuracy and illuminated the interior of the fortress. The 
fortress is now in our power and the corpses of more than 
six hundred foreigners were buried in the ditches. A great 
many who escaped the bayonet of the infantry, fell under 
the sabres of the cavalry. I can assure your Excellency 
that few are those who bore their associates the tidings of 
the disaster. Among the corpses are those of Bowie and 
Travis, who styled themselves Colonels, and also that of 
Crockett. Nor will we hereafter suffer any foreigners, 
whatever their origin maj^ be, to pollute our soil. I shall 
in due time send your Excellenc}^ a circumstantial report 
of this glorious triumph." 

It is not related whether the band with the Toluca Bat- 
tery continued to play the assassin's song while his Excel- 
lency wrote this report, but one would surmise so as the 
strains of that song and sentiment abound in his dic- 
tion. 

We first meet and part with Crockett at the Alamo. 
He had only come to Texas a few weeks before from Ten- 
nessee. He had been a member of Congress from Tennessee 
two terms and had gained a national reputation as a whig 
and opponent of President Jackson, who came from his 
own State. In the recent elections he had been defeated and 
in his characteristic style said his constituents could go to 
hell and he would go to Texas. He was a stalwart, pictur- 
esque frontiersman, and those who have looked upon his 
portrait as it hangs in the entrance to our State House 



148 



Goliad 

at Austin can but be impressed that he was a splendid 
specimen of frontier manhood. 

The outstanding feature of this great tragedy was the 
grim determination of the defenders to sell their lives in 
what they knew was a futile effort to hold the fort. 

Travis and his followers could have escaped to Gonzales 
and retreated with Houston, but this fact, though obvious 
to them, was never given a serious thought. They were 
determined to die in the Alamo at the threshold of 
Texas. 

But the nearly two weeks they delayed the advance of the 
Mexican army was as valuable to Texas as the sacrifice of 
Belgium in the path of the Kaiser's armies which saved 
Paris. It allowed the settlers between the Guadaloupe and 
the Brazos time to escape. While the Alamo was falling, 
the convention at Washington was forming a government 
to take place of the poor, miserable General Council. 

And as night fell on San Antonio on that beautiful 
March day, the roar of battle and the sounds of the assas- 
sin's song died away, and the mangled forms of our dead 
were piled like debris in the shadow of the old Mission. 

The invading army, over seven thousand men, waited or- 
ders to march on east and exterminate the ''foreigners who 
were polluting the soil. " 

Goliad. 

The most terrible atrocity of the Revolution was the mas- 
sacre at Goliad. One who studies this awful tragedy after 
the lapse of years is alternately moved with pity and con- 
tempt for poor Fannin. If his blunders had cost him only 
his life we could well forget his stubborn stupidity. He had 
a little West Point training, and is a conspicuous example 

149 



Goliad 

of the very old truth that ''a little learning is a dangerous 
thing." 

But the blood of those who fell with Fannin may well 
be upon the heads of the Council at San Felipe which de- 
posed Governor Smith and loaned the semblance of au- 
thority to an invasion of Mexico by way of Matamoros. 
Or, as Fannin put it, ''carry the war into Mexico to keep 
it out of Texas." 

After the capture of San Antonio in December, Fannin, 
who was with the army, visited San Felipe and succeeded 
in getting a commission from the General Council which 
authorized him to concentrate forces at Copano, a port on 
Aransas Bay, and in January he issued a call to volunteers 
to join him in such an enterprise. Just at this time Major 
William Ward, with the Georgia battalion, arrived at 
Velasco, and Fannin being a Georgian and known to many 
of them, they hastened to join him. In the meantime Doc- 
tor John Grant, who was with the army at Bexar, conceived 
the idea that he would lead an invasion into Mexico on his 
own account, and not desiring to march with Fannin, he 
got permission from the Council and moved to Goliad 
with fewer than two hundred men bent on carrying the 
war into Mexico. 

Several hundred volunteers had arrived at the mouth of 
the Brazos since the opening of hostilities, and they were 
being diverted to Copano and other places towards the 
southwest for this enterprise. All supplies and munitions 
which were being shipped by sea for the patriot army w^ere 
being landed at points along the Gulf, and for the most 
part, they were being taken over by Fannin or concentrated 
for use in his campaign. 

The small garrison at the Alamo remained isolated while 
Johnson, Grant and Fannin rushed their mad schemes for 



150 



Goliad 

a descent upon Matamoros. In January, General Houston, 
who had been named Commander-in-Chief by the General 
Council in the previous November, went down to Goliad 
and San Patricio in an effort to organize these wild, dis- 
cordant elements, but nearly every man he met had a 
commission from the General Council at San Felipe 1o act 
independently, and none of them would act with the others 
or with Houston. 

He returned, therefore, to await the action of the con- 
vention, which was to assemble in March. But the invading 
army w^ould not await the action of the convention. Santa 
Anna was early advised of the purpose of the Texans to at- 
tack Matamoros, and sent General Urrea there with a sub- 
stantial force, and while the main army marched from La- 
redo towards San Antonio, Urrea, with probably 1500 men, 
came into Texas from Matamoros. On February 27th, 
only three days after the IMexican army reached San An- 
tonio and began the siege of the Alamo, the advance guard 
of Urrea 's division reached San Patricio, where they at- 
tacked Frank W. Johnson's small command, who were 
scouting about the country in an aimless fashion. John- 
son was one of the commanders commissioned by the un- 
happy council at San Felipe to lead an invasion into Mexico. 
All of Johnson's men were killed except himself and four 
others who escaped. Urrea 's men next located Doctor 
John Grant and his men. 

On ]\Iarch 2nd, the very day the convention at Washing- 
ton declared independence, Grant's command was attacked 
about twenty miles from San Patricio, and all but one were 
killed or captured. Urrea reported forty-one killed and six 
prisoners. 

151 



Goliad 

A story has long been told in Texas that the Mexicans 
bound Doctor Grant to a wild mustang, and that he was 
dashed to death in that fashion. 

The surviving witness tells that he saw Grant fall and 
several Mexican soldiers running their swords through his 
body. Grant was a Scotchman, but had lived long years in 
Mexico, and they seemed to have a particular enmity to- 
wards him. These commanders, Johnson and Grant, had 
been styled the advance division of the volunteer army for 
the invasion of Mexico, and their early annihilation was a 
sad blow to Fannin's men at Goliad. 

On IMarch 10th, Fannin sent Captain King with twenty- 
eight men to relieve some families at Kefugio, and hearing 
two days later that King's men were surrounded in the 
Mission there, he sent Colonel Ward with his one hundred 
and fifty Georgia volunteers to aid King. King's command 
was destroyed and about one hundred of Ward's men suc- 
ceeded in retreating to Victoria, where they were cap- 
tured on March 22nd, and sent back to Goliad to be shot 
with Fannin's men. 

After making many plans and abandoning them all, poor 
Fannin attempted at the last hour to retreat from Goliad, 
and succeeded in getting some miles when they halted in an 
open prairie, in a depression away from shelter or water, 
and were surrounded by Mexicans and attacked on all sides. 

Here the battle of Coleto was fought, where the Texans 
defended themselves wdth great bravery, but without ammu- 
nition or artillery, they were soon at the mercy of Urrea's 
men, and a parley was opened for their surrender. On 
March 20th they surrendered, the terms being : 

1. That they surrender at discretion. 

2. That the wounded and their commander Fannin be 
treated with all consideration possible. 



152 



The Runaway Scrape 

3. That the whole detachment be treated as prisoners at 
the disposal of the Supreme Government. 

They were removed to Goliad, where they wei:e held in 
captivity along with a command of men from Nashville, 
Tennessee, under Colonel Miller, who had been captured as 
they landed at Copano. 

Urrea, who had gone to Victoria, left orders that the 
prisoners be treated humanely, but His Excellency remem- 
bered that the Supreme Government had passed a decree 
that all foreigners taken in arms should be executed as 
pirates, and under his orders the entire command were 
marched out at dawn on March 27th, and shot to death. 

The gruesome details of this massacre have so often been 
told that they need not be repeated here. About twenty of 
them were spared, most of whom were physicians and who 
were thought of some possible use. Thirty-four escaped in 
various ways — three hundred and sixty-four fell. 

J. C. Duval, who escaped by dashing away as they fired, 
wrote a very interesting account of it in later years, and re- 
lates that among the prisoners in the Kentucky Company to 
which he belonged, was a young man who had been a room- 
mate at college in Kentucky with a Mexican officer in Ur- 
rea 's command, that these young men found each other 
and the Mexican officer professed sympathy and kindness 
for his former boyhood friend, but made not the slightest 
effort to assist him or save him, and saw him shot to death 
without any apparent concern. 

The Runaivay Scrape. 

The colonists returning to their homes after the battle in 
April always spoke lightly of the retreat as the ''Runaway 
Scrape." 

153 



The Runaway Scrape 

An eyewitness who was in Gonzales on the evening of the 
eighth of March tells of the terror which was inspired by 
the news of the butchery at the Alamo. Many of the vic- 
tims were from DeWitt's Colony, and the twilight was 
filled with the screams of women and fatherless children 
bereft by that disaster. When General Houston reached 
Gonzales on March 11th, he found three hundred and seven- 
ty-four men half fed, half clad, half armed and unorgan- 
ized. Every wagon available but one was employed in mov- 
ing the women and children, for all Texas began to move 
eastward. One wagon with four oxen was devoted to the 
removal of the munitions of tear, and it \vas not over- 
loaded. 

As the retreat from Gonzales proceeded, one hundred and 
twenty-five reinforcements came up at Peach Creek, but 
news of the Alamo caused twenty-five of them to desert the 
same night. 

When the retreat reached the Colorado, there were five 
hundred men with Houston, but they had no artillery, not 
a cartridge or a ball. When they reached Nevada Creek 
they heard that a blind mother with six children had been 
left some miles below and a detachment Avas sent to bring 
her away. 

The ^'army " halted at the Colorado until all fugitives had 
crossed. On the Colorado news came of Fannin's fall at 
Goliad, and a detachment of the Mexican army under Ses- 
ma came in sight on the western bank of the river. There 
was an expectation that certain ordnance from the mouth 
of the Brazos would reach the camp at the Colorado. With- 
out it Houston dared not risk a battle, and we now know 
that a battle w4th Sesma would have decided nothing. The 
army as well as the whole population of Texas fell back 
to the Brazos. The men with Houston were in a bad hu- 



151 



The Runaway Scrape 

mor. He had taken no one into his confidence, and in fact 
never did do so until the very last. At times it seemed as 
though there would be open mutiny and that tlie wliole 
command would go to pieces, and this would no doubt have 
resulted but for the constant pressure of the invading army, 
which now approached San Felipe. In fact there was very 
little command, and heavy April rains retarded l)()lh armies. 
Houston effected a crossing of the Brazos some miles north 
of San Felipe, but the Mexican army could not follow for 
the awful condition of the ground and dropped down to 
Richmond, where an advance guard under Santa Anna 
crossed. 

There have come down to us some graphic pictures of 
those days which intervened between the fall oE the Alamo 
and San'jacinto. In the first volume of the Texas Histori- 
cal Quarterly, Mrs. Rosa Kleburg, who was, at the time she 
related the incidents, eighty-five years old, tells a story 
which will fairly illustrate the plight and flight of all 
Texas. Her husband and brothers joined the army, and the 
women in the family, with the father, migrated towards the 

east. 

"Most of the families travelled separately until they 
reached the Brazos, where all were compelled to halt for a 
crossing. I helped drive the cattle and carried my infant 
daughter in the saddle before me. When the families and 
their horses and cattle reached the crossing, the noise was 
terrible. There was only one small ferry boat, which would 
carry one vehicle at a time. Deaf Smith's Mexican wife was 
in a cart with two wooden wheels made from an entire 
cross-section of a large tree, with her two pairs of twins, 
but had no team to pull her cart. ^ly brother carried her 
for a distance with his yoke of oxen. The next day after 
we crossed over the Brazos we camped near Clear Creek. 

155 



The Runaway Scrape 

where Louis V. Reader, my brother's child, was born in 
a corn crib." 

Hundreds of refugees reached and crossed the Sabine. 
Lieutenant Hitchcock, who was with General Gaines at 
Camp Sabine, says the temporary camp of fugitives from 
Texas made of sheets and quilts spread from tree to tree 
extended up and down the east bank of the Sabine for 
twenty miles, presenting a picturesque but painful spec- 
tacle. 

The Government ad interim which was organized at 
Washington on the Brazos left for Harrisburg, hurried by 
the report that Sesma's army was approaching. President 
Burnet hurriedly sent back messages to Houston to stop his 
retreat and fight, but continued to retreat until he reached 
Galveston Island. And indeed he only escaped by a hair's 
breadth, for as he pulled off from Lynchburg in a skiff, 
Mexican soldiers were in sight and hastened his voyage 
with some target practice. 

Gail and Thomas H. Borden published a paper at San 
Felipe known as the Texas Telegraph & Register. It played 
a conspicuous part in those troubled days. As the Mexican 
army approached San Felipe, the town was deserted and 
destroyed, and the Borden printing business, loaded on an 
ox-wagon, started across the water logged prairie for Har- 
risburg, following the fugitive footsteps of the fleeing Gov- 
ernment ad interim. 

On April 14th, it was temporarily housed at Harrisburg, 
and as there was no hostile army in sight, the plucky pub- 
lishers, delayed by this removal, started their weekly paper 
with an apology for the delay and the reassuring salutation, 
"Our subscribers on hearing the ruin of San Felipe and 
seeing the delay in the appearance of our paper, have per- 
haps thought it at an end." 



156 



The Runaway Scrape 

After recounting the difficulties in the way and the great 
need of a newspaper just at this time the weekly publica- 
tion under date of April 14th was begun. It recounts the 
doleful news that the Mexicans had scoured the country as 
far as the Brazos, with an army at San Felipe, and one at 
Brazoria, while the central division had crossed at Rich- 
mond. Just here the April 14th edition of the paper stops, 
for at this point advance scouting parties of Santa Anna's 
army were reported near Harrisburg, and Borden took a 
few 'copies of so much of the paper as had been struck off 
and moved on. There are a half dozen or more copies of 
this half finished edition of April 14th yet in existence. 
His press was destroyed, and I have it from the Borden 
family that they tlirew it in the Bayou to prevent its fall- 
ing into Mexican hands. 

There was a further suspension of the publication from 
April 14th, but on August 2nd, these same indomitable 
Bordens published the next issue at Columbia, where the 
Government ad interim was then sojourning, and the next 
year they followed the new Government to Houston, where 
the paper was published for many years. 

All Texas was now east of the Brazos. The Mexican 
army had been divided into divisions, Avhich swept the 
countrv north as far as the San Antonio-Nacogdoches Road, 
south along the coast, while His Excellency with what he 
called the flower of the army hurried along in advance and 
crossed the Brazos at Fort Bend, and pushed on after the 
fleeing provisional Government. 

The only armed force which the Texans had was the dis- 
organized, unhappy, forlorn few hundred with Houston, 
who were pulling across the muddy prairies from San 
Felipe. 

157 



San Jacinto 

General Houston, grim and silent, seemed heading for 
the Red Lands, and thousands of fleeing families hurried 
their weary way on across the Trinity. These fugitives 
returned home in April, after the battle, and most of them 
planted a crop and reaped a harvest in that year. 

San Jacinto, 

After the fall of the Alamo, Santa Anna planned to re- 
turn to Mexico and leave the minor incidents of the fur- 
ther campaign to Filisola, but was dissuaded by Almonte, 
and decided to come on further east. He sent Sesma's di- 
vision after Houston's retreating army on the Colorado, 
with instructions to march via San Felipe and Harris- 
burg to Anahuac, where they would be embarked for home 
by sea. He sent Gaona direct to Nacogdoches. He did not 
seem to contemplate any serious opposition anywhere. 

Colonel Morales, with four companies, were sent to Goliad 
to join Urrea's army, which had come into Texas by Mata- 
moros, and which was then engaged with Fannin, Grant, 
Johnson and King. His Excellency left Bexar for San Fe- 
lipe ]March 29th, where he arrived on April 7th. Houston's 
little army had abandoned San Felipe a week before, going 
up the river to Groce's. The Mexicans would have followed 
but for high water. The Brazos bottom was as kind as the 
Red Sea, in that it allowed Houston's army to retreat but 
was impassable for the invading arm}^ to follow. Santa An- 
na, unable to follow or cross the river at San Felipe, moved 
down to Richmond. Houston crossed at Groce's on the 13th, 
and took up his march across the wet roadless prairie al- 
most south towards Harrisburg. On the 14th. Santa Anna 
crossed the Brazos at Richmond, ridins? hard with six hun- 



158 



San Jacinto 

dred picked men for Harrisburg, where he hoped to cap- 
ture President Burnet and the Government ad interim. 

He was in great good humor, and as they crossed Oyster 
Creek, near where Sugarland now stands, he enjoyed the 
noise and confusion that the cavalry made as it floundered 
in the "Muddy Squshy. Creek." As the mules and mule- 
teers floundered in the mire and the drivers swore as mule 
drivers have always done, His Excellency sat on his horse 
and laughed as though it was all improvised for his amuse- 
ment. 

One cannot overlook the contrast in these two armies as 
they converged across the prairies. His Excellency, flushed 
with victory, rode with a shining staff accompanied by such 
men as Almonte and Castrillion. It was a kind of holiday 
excursion for him. The little Texas army, if in fact it can 
be called such, consisted of fewer than 1,000 tired, hungry 
men, many of whom had not eaten an adequate meal for 
weeks. On the night before the}^ crossed the bayou Hous- 
ton slept on the ground in his wet clothes, with a saddle 
for a pillow, while a keen April norther added to the dis- 
comfort. 

The Mexicans reached Harrisburg on the night of the 
15th, and left the next day to scour the country down to 
the bay, intending to cross the bayou and the river above 
their confluence and go on to Nacogdoches or Anahuac. 
Santa Anna sent Houston word by a negro that as soon as 
he cleaned out the land thieves, meaning the Government 
officials, and probably the people east of the Trinity, he 
would pay his respects to Houston. 

A more foolhardy plan than Santa Anna had devised 
could not well be imagined. He had come into Texas with 
more than seven thousand five hundred men, and the morn- 
ing of the sixteenth when he rode out of Harrisburg going 



159 



San Jacinto 

down to the bay with only abont six hundred men, his forces 
were scattered in small divisions all the way to Bexar. 

Urrea was coming along the coast from Goliad with 
one thousand five hundred men. Gaona was near LaGrange 
with seven hundred and fifty. Sesma was on the Brazos 
at Fort Bend with one thousand. Filisola, with nearly 
two thousand, was coming down the river from San Felipe 
seeking a crossing. Cos with five hundred w^as trying to 
keep up with the mad fool who with his fleetest cavalry 
was dashing across the prairie after the Government. 

Houston learned definitely on the 18th that the advance 
force had passed Harrisburg, and that Santa Anna was 
with it, and the Texas army crossed from the north side 
of the bayou on the 19th and pushed on down to the conflu- 
ence of the bayou with the San Jacinto River, where it 
camped. 

This point was chosen to prevent Santa Anna from cross- 
ing further up. 

It has been charged that General Houston never in- 
tended to fight; that he expected to continue his retreat 
to the Red Lands with the hope of getting help from the 
troops under General Gaines of the United States army, 
who were camped at the border, and many of w^hom were 
eager to get into this fight. It is evident that Houston 
hoped for help from East Texas which never came. Just 
before crossing the bayou for the purpose of going after 
Santa Anna, he wrote a letter to Henry Rouget of the 
Committee of Safety at Nacogdoches, deploring the fact 
that no help had come from the Red Lands and announcing 
that he was now about to cross the bayou for the purpose 
of attacking Santa Anna's army. It has been charged that 
the battle ground was selected by accident, and the most 
disadvantageous point that could have been found along the 



160 



San Jacinto 

bayou. This is not true. In the first place it is high ground 
on the banks of the river. Then again it was in the edge 
of a woods which gave a commanding view of the prairies 
across which it was necessary for the IMexican army to ap- 
proach. 

On the morning of April 20, that portion of Santa Anna's 
army which had been scouring the bay shore, turned back 
toward the bayou and came in sight of the Texas army and 
camped in the woods, which can be seen probably a mile 
away from the monuments on what we call the battle ground. 
On the morning of the 21st, Cos with his detachment of 
something more than five hundred men, joined the com- 
mand, swelling the ^lexican forces to about one thousand 
five hundred men. There was much complaint and criti- 
cism among Houston's men, and no little distrust of him 
had arisen among his under officers. From the time 
lie left Gonzales until this hour he had communicated 
his designs to no one, and his silence gave weight to the 
thought that he had no defined plans and that he did not 
intend to fight. He held a council of war with his under 
oi¥icers on the forenoon of the 21st, in which it was warm- 
ly debated whether they should attack the enemy or await 
the enemy's attack. It was urged that the Mexican army 
was composed of veteran soldiers, and it was known that 
very few of the Texans had ever seen other than Indian 
warfare. Houston got the ideas of those present, but did 
not express himself at this council meeting. It was nearly 
4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 21st, when he tinally 
gave the order to Colonel John A. Wharton, the Judge 
Advocate General, to form the army for an immediate 
offensive. If this order had not been given at 4 o'clock 
there would have been a mutiny before sundown. The 
arniA^ and its leaders were on the point of forcing the issue. 



161 



San Jacinto 

The excitement was intense, and if the grim old Cherokee 
Chief had a design to work his men up to the point of 
frenzy for a fight, he managed it extremely well. 

There were seven hundred and eighty-three men in the 
battle line when it was formed on the high ground within a 
few hundred feet of the banks of the bayou. These forces, 
facing each other across the distance of no more than a 
mile, were alien races that had clashed before in the cen- 
turies gone by. 

As they fronted each other this day they were in a 
struggle for the boundary line of distinct civilizations. 
Upon the discovery of the Americas, the Spaniard, by his 
explorations and bloody conquest, had fastened his domin- 
ion, his language and his laws on all South America, 
and at one time his claims covered more than half of North 
America. Even after the Spanish cession of Louisiana to 
France and the relinquishment of Florida to the United 
States, Spain yet held Mexico, and it included Texas and 
the vast country to the northwest to the 42nd parallel upon 
the Pacific. In North America, England had become the 
dominant power, and here on this April day there came the 
clash of Latin with Saxon sovereignty. 

Sam Houston, Sidney Sherman, Tom Rusk, Edward Bur- 
leson, John Wharton and hundreds bearing English names 
and of English ancestry, were opposed to Antonio Lopez de 
Santa Anna, Castrillion, Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, Pedro 
Delegado and others bearing high sounding Spanish names. 
The ancestors of these combatants had fought each other 
when the Spanish Armada sailed into the northern seas to 
work the destruction of England. And now they were 
come to grips in the contest for a land larger than the 
Continental Empire of Charles Y, with the British Islands 
thrown in. One million square miles of river and forest, 



162 



San Jacinto 

mountain and plain were lost to his Imperial Highness at 
sundown that day. 

The destruction of the Mexican army was complete. San- 
ta Anna, Almonte and Cos were captured, and Castrillion, 
who led the charge at the Alamo, was among the slain. 
Houston, on the 25th, made his official report advising that 
our losses were two killed and twenty-three wounded, six 
mortally. 

Among the severely wounded was Alphonso Steele, who 
was shot through the lungs. Seventy-four years later, 
I met him on the battle field — then the last survivor of the 
conflict. He related to me how he was shot down and 
thought his wound mortal, and that with a dying madness 
he took a fallen gun and killed a Mexican soldier who came 
within his range and then crawled to the rear to die, which 
he did seventy-five years after. 

If we accept Cressay's Classification of decisive battles 
as correct, San Jacinto must be reckoned as the sixteenth 
decisive battle of the world. It decided the fate not onlj^ of 
the Texas Colonies but pointed the way to the Pacific 
Ocean. 

If our army had been defeated that day the American 
settlements would have been wiped out, and Santa Anna 
would have returned home a conquering hero with a 
prestige which would have sustained him for many years. 

The anti-slavery element in the States was bitterly op- 
posed to the extension of our territory to the Southwest, 
for it meant more slave states. They fought the recogni- 
tion of Texas in 1837 and fought its admission into the 
Union for ten long years after it became independent. If 
Mexico could have held it until we were in the shadow of 
our Civil War, the northern and eastern states would have 

163 



San Jaclnto 

been their ally and both France and England opposed our 
expansion across the Mississippi. 

The annexation of Texas to the Union, which followed 
San Jacinto, brought on the Mexican war which gave us the 
land west to the ocean and north to Oregon. 

The Battle of San Jacinto, coming after sixty days of 
the most intense excitement and following the terrible 
reverses of the Alamo and Goliad, filled Texas with 
great rejoicing and its tidings were received throughout 
the United States with the greatest enthusiasm. Five 
days after the battle, General Houston wrote a message 
in lead pencil, which was sent by a messenger to General 
Gaines on the Sabine. The message read : 

''San Jacinto, April 26, 1836. 
'*Tell our friends all the news, that we have beat the 
enemy, killed 630, taken 570 prisoners. General Santa 
Anna and Cos were taken, three generals slain. Vast 
amount of property taken and about 1500 standards of 
arms, many swords and one nine-pound brass cannon. 
Tell them to come on and let the people plant corn. 

''Samuel Houston, 

' ' Commander-in-Chief. ' ' 

This terse message was addressed to no one, and written 
on a sheet of paper no larger than the hand. General 
Gaines directed Lieutenant Hitchcock to deliver this dis- 
patch from Houston to the President of the United States, 
and on May 1st, he started on his long journey to Wash- 
ington. Hitchcock was the grandson of Ethan Allen, 
of Revolutionary fame. The messenger made his way to 
^Mobile, but found the northern route through Alabama 
so infested with Creek Indians he took a boat from Pensa- 
cola, in wliicb he crossed the sound and made his wav 



164 



San Jacinto 

to a stage line which crossed through Georgia. The 
rumor of Indians was so rife that all of the passengers 
on the boat turned back except the Lieutenant and a 
Scotchman named Anderson, who promised to accom- 
pany him all the way, and they made their way in the 
last coach that went through Georgia for many months. 
When he reached Washington, he was at once admitted 
to the President, who was recovering from a severe illness, 
and who was alone when the Lieutenant handed him 
Houston's dispatch. 

In his diary he writes : 

''I never saw a man more delighted than President 
Jackson. He read the dispatch over and dwelt particu- 
larly on the one from Houston, exclaiming over and over, 
as though talking to himself, 'Yes, that is his writing. 
I know it well. That is Sam Houston's writing. There 
can be no doubt about what he says.' Then the old man 
ordered a map and he and I spread it and tried to locate 
San Jacinto. He passed his finger excitedly over the map 
in search of the name, but it was not there. He would 
say, 'It must be here. * * * No, it is over there,' as 
he ran his fingers back and forth over the map, but 
finally gave up the search. So great was his enthusiasm 
that I think he would have promoted me to a captain of 
dragoons on the spot had there been a vacancy." 

In his old age, and during his last exile, Santa Anna 
wrote his memoirs, with the request that their publica- 
tion be withheld until all of that generation had passed 
awa}-. The manuscript is in the Garcia library now 
owned by the Texas University. His account of the 
Texas campaign contains many remarkable statements, 
but no part of it is more interesting than his account of 
the Battle of San Jacinto, of which he writes: 



165 



San Jacinto 

*'The campaign should come to an end before the 
floods, a condition which made it imperative for me to 
advance rapidly against the colonj^ Between the enemy 
and me was the copious Brazos River, which was guarded 
by the colonists. Here it was necessary to surprise the 
detachment at Thompson's Pass, an operation which was 
well executed, and which facilitated our passing easily 
with the canoes which we had taken. 

' ' Five leagues beyond, in the little town of Arisburg 
(Harrisburg), was locateki the Government of the so- 
called Republic of Texas. * * * j marched imme- 
diately towards that place, with six companies of grena- 
diers and light troopers and small cannon. In one night 
we crossed the prairie, and were already approaching the 
houses when a gun was accidentally discharged; the ex- 
plosion aroused the dogs, and frightened the local of- 
ficials, who ran to hide themselves in the little steamer 
which, as a precaution, they had in the Arroyo del Buf- 
falo (Buffalo Bayou) with engine fired. This stream 
empties into the San Jacinto River, which bathes Gal- 
veston Island. In the residence of I. Bonnen (Burnet), 
the titular president of the Republic of Texas, there was 
found correspondence from Houston which had arrived 
the day before. The latter was in low spirits. In one of 
his communications, he expressed himself thus : 

'' 'The catastrophes of the Alamo and the Llano del 
Perdido, with the deplorable loss of the brave Travis and 
Fancy (Fannin), have discouraged my men, and they 
are deserting in platoons, believing the cause of Texas 
lost. This obliges me to seek protection on Galveston 
Island until a more opportune time. I shall make use 
of the first vessel that enters the San Jacinto River. The 
Mexicans continue advancinor. ' 



166 



San Jacinto 

'*! considered it important to pursue Houston, and not 
less important to increase the forces which accompanied 
me. To this end I immediately ordered my second, Vin- 
cente Filisola, General of Divisions, to march with the 
battalion of sappers with all of his strength, wdth in- 
structions to his chief to come to me at once, under con- 
voy of the bearer of my order. Filisola, with consider- 
able forces, had remained at Thompson's Pass, waiting 
Urrea's brigade. I had left him two special written or- 
ders: First, that he should not send any written dis- 
patches nor any written correspondence which the enemy 
might intercept. Second, that, after uniting with Urrea's 
brigade, he should force his marches and overtake me. 
Orders dictated with such foresight did not prevent the 
lamentable event which the disobedience of Filisola was 
to bring about. He seems to have deliberately spoiled a 
happy campaign which was near its end. 

'^ Appreciating the situation, I did not wish to lose a 
single hour. I looked for Houston along the banks of the 
San Jacinto River, and found him under shelter of the 
forest, ready to retire to Galveston. I resolved to delay 
him, affording time for the battalion of sappers or 
Filisola himself, and I camped within sight. I was 
waiting impatiently when General Cos arrived Avith three 
hundred troops from the Guerrero battalion, commanded 
by its chief, Don Manuel Caspedes. 

"Thoroughly disgusted to see my order disobeyed, and 
foreseeing disaster, I determined to counter-march the 
same day to try Filisola, and receive reinforcements, but 
was already too late. The evil was done. The dis- 
obedient Filisola had sent one of his aides with informa- 
tion from ^Mexico, who before reaching my camp was in- 
tercepted, and, when put to torture, told all he knew. 

167 



San Jacinto 

Houston, thus advised of the superiority of his forces 
over those which I had at the front, took courage and de- 
cided to attack. At tAvo o'clock in the afternoon of 
April 21, 1836, I had fallen asleep in the shade of an 
oak, hoping the heat would moderate so that T might 
begin the march, when the filibusterers surprised my 
camp with admirable skill. Imagine my surprise, on 
opening my eyes, and finding myself surrounded by those 
people, threatening me with their rifles and overpowering 
my person. The responsibility of Filisola Avas obvious, be- 
cause he and only he had caused such a catastrophe by 
his criminal disobedience. 

'* Samuel Houston treated us in a way that could not 
have been hoped for. His humane and generous conduct 
contrasted severely with that of Filisola. On recognizing 
me, he addressed me courteously, extending his hand. 
Despite his wounds, which he had received assaulting my 
camp, he interested himself wdth regard to my person, 
ordered my tent and cot to be prepared and placed near 
his. To those who begged reprisal, he said seriously, 
'There is no need of harboring resentment against the 
prisoners. They complied with the precepts of their 
Government.' I have always recalled with the sincerest 
gratitude how much I owed to this singular man in the 
saddest moments of my career." 



168 



THE REPUBLIC 

The Repuhlic of Texas. 

Though the independence of Texas had been declared 
at the Washington Convention on March 2nd, it was not 
achieved until the close of the day at San Jacinto. The ad 
inievim government had taken refuge on Galveston 
Island, and General Houston sent a messenger to Presi- 
dent Burnet, and he and Vice-President de Zavala and 
other members of the government came by steamer to 
San Jacinto, arriving there three days after the battle. 
Houston was suffering from a wound in his foot and de 
sired to go to New Orleans for medical treatment, and, 
at his request, Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War, as- 
sumed the command of the army, and President Burnet 
and his advisers began negotiations with Santa Anna. 

The Mexican President had left the battlefield well 
mounted, and tried to join Filisola's command on the 
Brazos. The country was strange to him, and instead 
of riding directly across the prairie and making his 
escape, as he could readily have done, he followed the 
road by which he had come, by Harrisburg. There was 
a wooden bridge across Vince's Bayou, over which both 
his and Houston's troops had passed on their way down 
to San Jacinto. Just before the battle began on the 
21st, Houston had sent Deaf Smith to destroy this bridge. 
When Santa Anna reached Vince's Bayou, finding the 
bridge destroyed, he plunged into the muddy stream and 
his horse stuck fast in the mire. He dismounted and lost 
his boots in the mud. In a report which he made to his 
government some years later, he says: 

169 



The Republic of Texas 

'^I alighted from my horse and concealed myself in 
a thicket of dwarf pines. Night came on and I crossed 
the creek with water np to my waist. I found a house 
which had been abandoned, and some articles of clothing 
which enabled me to change my apparel. About eleven 
o'clock the next day I was crossing a large plain and 
my pursuers overtook me." 

The next morning various parties were scouring the 
prairie and all on the lookout for Santa Anna and Cos. 
James A. Sylvester, who had come with volunteers from 
Cincinnati, and who had worked as a printer on a paper 
in that city, relates : 

*'We were near the bridge on Vince's Bayou, and I 
saw some deer and rode nearer to get a shot at them. 
"When they started, I looked to see what had frightened 
them, and saw a Mexican going towards the bayou." 

Not suspecting who the prisoner was, they took him 
into the camp, but his fellow-prisoners recognized him in 
his disguise, and from their exclamations when they saAV 
him he shortly became known. He readily agreed to is- 
sue a command to Filisola to retire to Victoria : 

''I have agreed with General Houston on an armistice 
until matters can be so regulated that the war can cease 
forever. ' ' 

President Burnet negotiated two treaties with Santa 
Anna, one of which was published at the time, the other 
a secret treaty. The open treaty provided that ail 
hostility should cease, and Santa Anna would not ''ex- 
ercise his influence to cause arms to be taken up 
against the people of Texas during the present war for 
independence." 

In the secret treaty, he bound himself to ''so prepare 
things in the Cabinet of Mexico that a mission sent 



170 



The Republic of Texas 

thither by the Government of Texas may be well re- 
ceived and by means of negotiations all differences may 
be settled and independence acknowledged." 

The Rio Grande was to be the boundary, and Santa 
Anna was to be sent at once by Vera Cruz. These 
treaties were executed at Velasco on the 14th day of 
May, and within a short time plans were completed for 
sending the captive President home, and on June 3, 1836, 
he and his suite had embarked on the Schooner ''Invinc- 
ible" in the mouth of the Brazos and w^ere ready to sail, 
and he issued a friendly farewell to Texas and the 
Texans. 

Just before the vessel sailed, a steamer arrived from 
New Orleans bearing two hundred and fifty volunteer 
soldiers who had come to take part in the revolution. 
They at once determined that Santa Anna should not be 
liberated, and forcibly took him in charge, defjdng the 
Government and setting aside the treaties of Velasco. 
The Texas army under Rusk had followed Filisola's 
forces as they retreated toward the Rio Grande, and 
was camped near Victoria at this time, and President 
Burnet, who had taken up his headquarters at Velasco, 
was without power to resist the importunities of these 
new recruits who defied the Gt)vernment and took af- 
fairs into their own hands. Santa Anna was taken up to 
the Phelps plantation, at Orozimbo, above Columbia, 
where he was held until the following November. 

Volunteer soldiers and immigrants came into Texas in 
great numbers during the summer of 1836 and every- 
where there was excitement and disorder which always 
follows war. The authority of the ad interim Govern- 
ment was little respected, and the army which remained 
camped on the Navidad was a wild, turbulent body of 



171 



The Recognition of Texas 

poorly disciplined men. There were constant rumors all 
through the summer and autumn that another Mexican 
army was being mustered to invade Texas, and it was 
not thought prudent to disband our army. President 
Burnet did his utmost to maintain order, but with little 
success. He called a general election to be held in 
September, at which was submitted for ratification the 
constitution which had been adopted at Washington on 
the Brazos in March. A president and vice-president 
and congress were chosen at this election. The Constitu- 
tion was ratified. Houston was chosen President almost 
by acclamation over Austin and Henry Smith, who re- 
ceived only a few hundred votes each. Mirabeau Lamar 
was elected vice-president. The question of annexation to 
the United States was also voted upon, and onty eighty- 
nine votes were cast against it. 

The first Congress met at Columbia on the Brazos in 
a barn-like building, which was destroyed in the tropical 
storm of 1900 and which this generation remembers ''like 
a ragged beggar sunning." In poverty almost pitiful, 
the new Government began on the tract of land on which 
in later 3^ears the great Columbia oil fields were found, 
and more money has been taken from one of these wells 
than Avould have been required to pay the debt of the 
Republic during its whole existence. Tn December, Con- 
gress recessed to meet in Houston in May, this place 
having been chosen as the capital until 1840. 

The Be cognition of Texas. 

When we recall how diligently the Adams and Jackson 
administrations had wrought for years to accomplish the 
purchase of Texas, we would suppose the Washington 
Government would have immediately accepted the offer 



172 



The Recognition of Texas 

of annexation which was almost unanimously adopted by 
the people of Texas at their first election in September, 
1836. But in point of fact, it Avas only after grent 
effort that the American Congress was induced to recog- 
nize the independence of Texas, and it required ten 
long years to accomplish annexation. The most im- 
portant thing confronting the new Government was im- 
mediate recognition by the United States, and President 
Houston appointed William H. Wharton of Brazoria 
minister to Washington, with the hope of procuring im- 
mediate recognition. There was every reason to sup- 
pose it would be promptly accorded. Houston's lifelong 
intimacy with General Jackson and the Avell-known views 
of the American President would seem to have guaran- 
teed most anything that Texas wanted. But eTacksou 
was in ill health, and was to retire from the Presidency 
in a few months, and Van Buren had been elected to suc- 
ceed him before the Texas envoy reached Washington. 

Wharton left Velasco for New Orleans en route 1o 
Washington on the 23rd of November. Two days later 
President Houston sent Santa Anna under an escort to 
Washington, and his trip was so planned that he would 
reach Washington only a few days after the arrival of 
the Texas Minister. Santa Anna in his memoirs speaks of 
his journey to Washington : 

*'0n taking leave of me, Houston said with emotions 
of pleasure, 'General, you are no longer a prisoner. From 
this moment you are at absolute liberty. I want to ask 
one favor, and this I must surely merit : Before re- 
turning to your country, you visit President Jackson, my 
protector and friend. You will be well received b}^ him 
because he wishes to know you.' In that helpless state 
and in despair of getting aAvaj^ from the filibusterers my 

173 



The Recognition of Texas 

refusal seemed imprudent, and with good grace I of- 
fered gladly to comply with his vrishes. I received a most 
cordial reception from President Jackson. '^ 

The real purpose of Santa Anna's mission to Wash- 
ington was to tell the President of the United States that 
Mexico would make no further attempt to conquer Texas, 
and that he interposed no objection to its independence. 
The instructions given Minister Wharton were to urge 
the recognition of Texas' independence, and its im- 
mediate annexation to the United States. Before AYliarton 
reached Washington, he began to see signs of opposi- 
tion to Texas, fomented chiefly by abolitionists in the 
North who saw an extension of slave territory in Ameri- 
can supremacy over Texas, and on December 11th, while 
en route, he wrote Austin, the Secretary of State for 
Texas : 

"Annexation, when offered, will agitate the Union 
more than Missouri, abolition and nullification all com- 
bined." 

When he reached Washington in December, he found 
the President ill and first communicated with Secretary 
of State Forsythe, who advised that the President hoped 
Texas could get recognition from some European country 
first, that the fact that it had offered annexation at its 
recent election embarrassed the Government, for it w^ould 
lend color to the charge that recognition was a means by 
which annexation would be accomplished. For the first 
time in his whole life, the old warrior President seemed 
conservative and did not desire to do anything that 
would offend Mexico or any European country. On 
December 21st he sent a message to Congress: 

"Our custom has been to regard the question of 
recognition of belligerent countries as questions of fact 



174 



The Recognition of Texas 

and our predecessors have cautiously abstained from de- 
ciding them until the clearest evidence was in their pos- 
session, not only to enable them to decide correctly but 
shield their decisions from every unworthy imputation 
* * * Recognition at this time, therefore, would 
scarcely be regarded as consistent with that prudent 
reserve with which we have heretofore held ourselves 
bound to treat all similar questions." 

This message was unlike Jackson. Never in his 
whole life had he been deterred by ''prudent reserve" 
or by precedent of other days, or by anything else, from 
doing or saying anything he wanted to do or say. He 
had labored for eight long years for the annexation of 
Texas. He had gone into raptures when Lieutenant 
Hitchcock brought him the message from Houston telling 
him of the victory of San Jacinto. His attitude at this 
time was a surprise to the w^orld, and especially to his 
Southern friends. But in December, 1836, Jackson w^as 
ill. Van Buren, his successor, would become President 
in March, and the old man seems to have yielded to 
political expediency where he had never been known to 
do so before. On Sunday, December 25th, IMinister 
Wharton, wrote Secretarj^ of State Austin with reference 
to this message : 

' ' Some say it is the work of Van Buren. Others that 
Jackson hopes when Santa Anna reaches the city in a 
few da;)^s that a treaty will be agreed upon by which the 
United States can buy Texas." 

Wharton and Jackson had been lifelong friends in 
Tennessee, and as soon as the President was able to see 
him there was a long interview, in which Wharton 
told President Jackson that he had done Texas and the 
Texans as much injury as if he had joined jMexico in 

175 



The Recognition of Texas 

arms against tliem; that the JMexicans would have his 
message printed on satin and circulated through all the 
land. The result of this conference Avas a promise on the 
part of President Jackson to- send another message to 
Congress favorable to recognition. During the con- 
versation the President told Wharton that Santa Anna 
would be in Washington in a few days, and that if a 
treaty could be made with him it would be valid. 

The Mexican President did not reach Washington until 
the 18th of January, and but for his timely arrival and 
the messages that he gave Jackson, the recognition of 
Texas would probably not have been accomplished at that 
time. Wharton had a conference with Santa Anna upon 
his arrival, of which he writes : 

"General Santa Anna informed me that he had re- 
quested the American Secretary- of State to give him the 
amount of claims which American citizens held against 
Mexico, and that after ascertaining the amount, he 
would promptly state to this Government the additional 
sum of money which Mexico would ask for a quit claim to 
Texas. I then asked Santa Anna what was the greatest 
amount the United States Government had offered Mexico 
for Texas, and he told me thirteen million dollars. He 
told me he knew it was to the best interest of Mexico 
and Texas that there should be peace and that he realized 
Texas could not be reconquered. That the threatened in- 
vasion so much talked about was a humbug, and that as 
soon as he reached Mexico he would stop it. That what 
he had promised while in captivity in Texas he would 
perform at the capital of his own nation. He concluded 
jocularly that the Treasury of the United States was 
well filled; that he hoped I, as Minister from Texas, 
would not obstruct his Government from obtaining a few 



176 




WILLIAM H. WHARTON 

First Texas Minister to the United States, who was killed by the 

accidental discharge of his pistol in March, 1839 




PENELOPE JOHNSON WHARTON 

(Daughter of Gov. Johnson of S. C.) 
Wife of Gen. John A. Wharton (the younger) and their daughter Kate 



The Recognition of Texas 

million from this Government for a quit claim to Texas. 
That he was in accord with recognition of Texas by the 
United States, and hoped it would take place before he 
left Washington. That this vrould enable him to make a 
much more favorable treaty, and take a smaller sum for 
Texas and assist him in getting such a treaty ratified in 
Mexico. ' ' 

On the same day that Wharton had this remarkable 
interview with the Mexican President, he had a sum- 
mons to the White House for an interview with Presi- 
dent Jackson. Santa Anna had called on General Jack- 
son and had said to him about the same he had said to 
Wharton, and Jackson thought the whole thing could be 
settled by the United States buying Texas from Mexico. 
But Wharton protested that Texas should not be bought 
and sold like a chattel. That it was a free country and 
in any event should be made a party to any bargain and 
sale between the United States and Mexico. That first 
of all it should be recognized as an independent nation 
and details of any settlement along these lines might 
follow. It would seem now that there was no excuse 
left to delay Texas recognition, but the influence of Van 
Buren, who had some sinister purpose, not clear at this 
time nor apparent then, and the determination of the 
abolitionists yet stood in the w^ay. And though the 
President of Mexico had gone all the way to Washington 
and had admitted to the President of the United States 
that Texas should be free, yet there was wdiat we might 
now call a "bloc" in the American Congress bent, on de- 
feating, or at least postponing, the recognition during 
the term of Congress which would expire in less than 
thirty days. 

On February 7th, when the Appropriation Bill for 
diplomatic service was on regular call, Waddy Thompson, 

177 



The Recognition of Texas 

Senator from South Carolina, moved that an item be 
added, inserting a provision for the expense of an agent 
to the '' Independent Eepnblic" of Texas. His motion 
was lost by heavy adverse vote, but on the last day of 
February, while the Appropriation Bill was j^et be- 
fore the House, he renewed his motion and omitted the 
word ''independent," and added the qualification 
''whenever the President of the United States may re- 
ceive satisfactory evidence that Texas is an independent 
power and shall deem it expedient to appoint such a 
minister. ' ' 

This seemed harmless and no one could oppose its 
principle. Then, tod, Van Buren would be President in 
four days and he could be counted on to delay the 
matter indefinitely, so the utterly academic, harmlesJFj 
rider to the Appropriation Bill went by. Wharton imme- 
diately sought the President and urged and implored him 
to act under this rider in the Appropriation Bill and 
send a diplomatic agent to Texas at once. Only four days 
of Jackson's administration remained. He continued his 
entreaties until the last day of the term, when the Presi- 
dent sent a message to the Senate calling attention to the 
fact that both Houses had inserted in the General Ap- 
propriation Bill a provision for the expenses of a 
diplomatic agent to Texas "whenever the executive is 
satisfied of her independence. Therefore, I name Alcee 
LaBranche, of Louisiana, to be Charge d 'Affairs to the 
Republic of Texas." It was near midnight on March 
3rd when this message of nomination went to the Senate, 
and on the stroke of the hour President Jackson, Minister 
Wharton and a coterie of their friends drank to the 
Republic of Texas. General Jackson said to Wharton : 

"Texas must claim to the Pacific, must claim and 
hold California. This will paralyze the opposition of the 

178 



The Passing of Austin 

north to annexation, for there are great fishing opera- 
tions on the Pacific Coast owned in the North and East." 
Eight years later, in the last hours of John Tyler's 
administration, a resolution for the annexation of Texas 
•was signed under similar circumstances. 

Passing of Austin. 

The construction of a new Government involved a vast 
amount of labor and detail, and a very large part of this 
work fell to the Secretary of State, and he entered upon 
his labors with his usual industry. 

It was now fifteen years since he first rode down into 
the Colorado-Brazos country to select a site for his first 
Colony, and since he led the advance of his old three hun- 
dred into the wilderness. He was only twenty-eight then. 
He had given these fifteen years to the enterprise, to th% 
neglect of all else. For years he was the law of the Colonies, 
and his firm, modest manhood had won for him and his 
people the respect of Mexico. He hoped to live in peace 
under the IMexican Government, and was one of the few 
men in Texas who cherished the hope that Texas could 
and would remain a part of the Mexican Republic. A free 
people have ever been prone to cruelty and ingratitude to- 
wards those who have served them best. 

The history of our country teems with conspicuous ex- 
amples of men who have given their lives to the public 
service, and have been scourged into poverty and neglect 
in their old age. 

Austin had been abused for ten years because he would 
not lend himself to mad schemes for a separation of Texas 
from IMexico. He was a reticent, silent man, and often 
misunderstood. William H. Wharton was his bitter enemy, 



179 



The Passing of Austin 

and had often said ugly things about him. They were rec- 
onciled at the outbreak of the Revolution, and went to- 
gether as Commissioners to the States and became fast 
friends. 

Upon their return in June, 1836, Wharton solicited him 
to become a candidate for the Presidency. He was a man 
of prodigious energy. Almost at once after his return in 
June he took active steps to protect East Texas against 
Indian depredations, and was the instrument of procuring 
soldiers from the American Army to be stationed at Nacog- 
doches. 

He was not disgruntled by the fact that he only received 
a few hundred votes for the presidency, and gladly accepted 
a place with the administration, willing to help work 
out the national destiny of Texas, for Texas was his life 
labor and love. He had no family, and like Washington, 
J'rovidence left him childless that his people might call him 
''Father." 

During his long imprisonment in Mexico in 1834 and 
1835, Santa Anna was in power, and on one occasion during 
this time had Austin brought out of prison for a conference 
regarding Texas affairs, and when the conference was over 
the jailer escorted him back to the bastile. And now a short 
year later when Austin returned from the States, Santa 
Anna was a prisoner at the Phelps plantation down in 
Brazoria, and Austin went to Orozimbo to confer with him 
about Texas affairs. When the conference was over, Austin 
rode back to his home at Peach Point and left his Imperial 
Plighness in captivity. 

As Secretary of State, his work required a vast amount of 
correspondence, which he conducted without the aid of an 
assistant. There were no typewriters or stenographers in 
those daj^s, and when papers were written in duplicate as 



180 



The Army of the Republic 

State papers must be, they were most laboriously copied just 
as they were first written. 

The old State House at Columbia was little better than 
a barn, and here in a bare room, by the dim light of a flick- 
ering candle, he worked and wrote far into each night, pre- 
paring papers with instructions to our ministers and en- 
voys, who were being sent on various missions far and wide. 
He sat on a chair with a rawhide bottom, and when the chill 
of the December night crept into the fireless room he gath- 
ered his cloak about his frail form and worked on, for there 
was much to do, and no other man living knew as much of 
Texas needs and affairs as the Secretary of State. 

Just before the close of the year he sickened, and on 
December 27th he died of pneumonia. In the hours of his 
dving delirium, he lived over again the years that had gone 
before and his last words were, ''Texas has been admitted." 

And this brings us to the close of his eventful life, and the 
all-eventful year in Texas history. The Alamo had fallen 
March 6th; Fannin fell at Goliad on :^Iarch 27th; San 
Jacinto was won on April 21st. Houston was elected Presi- 
dent on September 3rd. The first Congress met on Octo- 
ber 3rd. And in the last days of the year the great white 
soul of Austin went back to God who gave it. 

The Army of ihe Bcpu'blic. 

The charge was openly made in the United States by 
those who were unfriendly to the Texas Revolution, that 
there were not fifty citizens of Texas at the Battle of San 
Jacinto ; that Houston's entire army was composed of volun- 
teers and adventurers from the United States. William E. 
Channing, the Boston clergyman who led a fervent crusade 
against Texas and the Texans, made this statement in his 

181 



The Army of the Republic 

celebrated letter to Henry Clay, which was widely circidated 
as a political document during the annexation controversy. 
It is true that the Revolution was wonderfully aided in 
every way by the people of the Southern States, and within 
three or four months after San Jacinto as many as twenty- 
five hundred men from the States presented themselves for 
service during the war. It has been said on high authority 
that there were more men on the way to join Houston's com- 
mand at the time the battle was fought, than he had with 
him. Touching the matter of foreign aid, Mr. Eugene C. 
Barker, who covered the topic in an article written for the 
Texas Historical Quarterly in 1906, wrote: "But when all 
is said it was really the old settlers who did almost unaided 
all the effectual fighting in the Texas Revolution. They 
captured Goliad in the fall of 1835, and assisted by a few 
companies from the United States, captured Bexar in De- 
cember of that year, and practically alone they won the bat- 
tle of San Jacinto." 

It was also charged in those days that the Revolution was 
the work of what northern writers called the slave-holding 
oligarchy. 

On November 11, 1836, there was pending before the first 
Senate of the Republic a bill giving bounty lands to sol- 
diers, and William H. Wharton, Senator from Brazoria, 
made the point that the large land owners, the wealthy 
planters and merchants, were not at the battle of San Ja- 
cinto. 

''I have examined the list of those who won the battle 
(he said), and find that very few men who are esteemed 
men of property were there. 

"I find that the battle was fought and won by the poor 
men of the country, at least half of whom had never located 
a headridit in Texas." 



182 



The Army of the Republic 

It has been said that nearly all of those who came to do 
military service remained in the country and became eiti- 
z.ens. 

The news of the victory at San Jacinto caused a rush 
of volunteers from the States. 

Felix Huston, a lawyer and planter, from Vicksburg, 
Mississippi, equipped five hundred men and brought them 
ready for service. 

Memucan Hunt, from JMississippi, undertook to bring 
four thousand men, and w^as instrumental in procuring one 
thousand. 

Thomas J. Chambers, of Texas, raised several companies 
in Kentucky, who came ready for service. 

Rusk was named to command when General Houston left 
for New Orleans in May to get medical treatment for the 
wound he received in the battle. Rusk led the army in 
the wake of the retreating Mexicans, and during the sum- 
mer and autumn of 1836 it was camped at and near Vic- 
toria, and for several months afterwards on the Lavaca 
River. 

After the Mexican forces were withdrawn, Rusk desired 
to be relieved, and suggested Felix Huston to succeed him. 
President Burnet named Colonel Lamar, who repaired to 
the army to take command. Felix was a convivial person, 
and had made himself so popular with the men in the ser- 
vice that they declined to accept Colonel Lamar, and he re- 
turned, leaving Huston in command. 

A great many turbulent, meddlesome men foregathered 
with the so-called army, and little semblance of military dis- 
cipline was maintained. 

At one time a conspiracy was formed to depose President 
Burnet and try him at court martial for some feigned griev- 
ance, and a company of soldiers came all the way to the 



183 



The Army of the Republic 

Brazos upon this fool's errand, but thought better of 
it. 

All the while rumors persisted that another invasion 
was coming from ^Mexico, and though the army was a great 
financial burden as well as a menace, it could not be 
disbanded. 

When the first Congress met in the autumn of 1836, the 
army was its greatest problem. It was thought wise to 
name a man from the United States of military experience 
to command, and the two houses passed a joint resolution 
inviting General James Hamilton, of South Carolina, to 
become a citizen of Texas and commander of the army. 

He had been an officer in the war of 1812, and had served 
as Governor of South Carolina and United States Senator 
from that State. General Hamilton declined the honor, and 
Felix Huston remained in command. ''The Texan Armj^" 
of 1836 was a cosmopolitan affair, made up of men from 
everywhere. 

Preston Johnston, in his life of Albert Sidney Johnston, 
describes them, ''the ardent youth of the South, burning for 
military glory. Enthusiasts of constitutional freedom min- 
gled with adventurers from Europe ; souls as knightly and 
unstained as Bayard with outlaws and men of broken, des- 
perate fortunes." 

It w^as on the Coleto, in the summer of 1836, that the gal- 
lant Albert Sidney Johnston, lately a lieutenant in the 
army of the United States, and destined in the years to come 
to be one of America's greatest generals, joined the Texas 
army as a private. He was in his thirty-fourth year, and a 
splendid specimen of manhood. He remained witii the 
army for a period, and served the new Government in sev- 
eral minor capacities, and late in January, 1837, President 
Houston named him Commander-in-Chief of the army of the 



184 



The Army of the Republic 

Republic, and he left Houston for headquarters on the 
Lavaca to take command. Felix Huston, though without 
military experience, had many qualities for a great com- 
mander, and among them was the esteem of his men. 

When it was announced that Albert Sidney Johnston 
was coming to take command, both Felix and his friends 
felt that he had been badly treated, and were in an ugly 
mood. To make bad matters Vv'orse, Colonel ^Moorehouse 
rode over to Texana and met General Johnston as he came 
down, and was not over-careful in what he related about 
Huston's attitude and purposes. 

On February 4th, Huston addressed a formal challenge 
to Johnston, professing respect and admiration for him, 
but remonstrating: ''Your appointment was connected 
with a tissue of treachery intended to degrade me and blast 
my prospects. * * * j therefore propose a meeting 
between us. My friend Major Ross will make all necessary 
arrangements. ' ' 

No duelling pistols could be found in the camp, and they 
agreed to use Felix Huston's horse-pistols, and he gave 
Johnston his choice. The seconds arranged that they should 
fire from the hip, though General Johnston declared he did 
not think he could hit the side of a house with a hip shot. 
In the early morning of February 5th the little party ford- 
ed the Lavaca and rode to an open prairie, where the 
principals stripped to their shirt sleeves and faced each 
other at sunrise. 

There are two accounts of just what happened. Preston 
Johnston, in the biography of his gallant father, relates it: 
"It is known to those familiar with the use of a hair trig- 
ger that if the finger is allowed to touch it, the report of 
another pistol will always produce a sufficient involuntary 
muscular contraction of the finger to cause a premature 



185 



The First Capitals of Texas 

discharge. Availing himself of this fact, General Johnston 
raised his pistol quickly and with an eye on his opponent's 
trigger finger anticipated him enough to draw his fire be- 
fore Huston could cover him with his pistol. Johnston re- 
peated this five times with the same result. The sixth 
shot struck General Johnston in the hip. Sidney Huston, 
a great grandson of Felix Huston, gave me a statement from 
an eye-witness who relates it thus: Johnston fired four 
shots, Huston three. The third time Huston's pistol 
snapped and he sat down, took his pocket knife and picked 
the flint of his lock and they took position for the fourth 
time, and when the}^ fired Johnston fell." 

Huston approached General Johnston as he lay wounded 
and offered his sympatic, and avowed his intention to 
serve under him, and indeed he remained with the army 
for some weeks, and cheerfully recognized Johnston as his 
superior officer. It was thought that Johnston's Avound 
was fatal, and he lay near death for some weeks at the lit- 
tle village of Texana, but he lived for a wonderful military 
career, and died on the field of Shiloh nearly thirty years 
after. He and Felix Huston became fast friends, and Felix 
named a son for the great commander, and Preston John- 
ston wrote in his father's biography forty years later that 
"Felix Huston's character was brave and manly."- 

The problem of maintaining the army became more se- 
rious than the ever-threatening Mexican invasion, and, on 
April 18th, 1837, President Houston furloughed the first 
army of the Republic, and it passed into history. 



The Capitals of Texas. 

The first grant made by the Mexican nation in April, 
1823, directed Austin to select a central location for a citv 



186 



The First Capitals of Texas 

to become his seat of Government, and Governor Garcia 
took the liberty of suggesting a name for the proposed city, 
and christened it San Felipe de Austin, San Felipe being 
his patron saint. It was named before it was located. The 
first site discussed was on the Colorado, near where Colum- 
bus was later located, but Austin chose the Brazos as more 
central to his settlements. 

From 1823 to 1836 it remained the seat of Government, 
and was the most important town in the Colonies. When 
Houston's army retreated from San Felipe in April, 1836, 
going up the river to Groce's, the town was burned to keep 
anything of value from falling into the hands of the Mex- 
icans. 

Santa Anna reached there while the fires Avere yet smoul- 
dering, and reported finding it in ruins. The Government 
was more or less migratory during 1836. . 

The convention which declared independence and set up 
the provisional government met in jMarch at AVashington 
on the Brazos, but left there, going to Harrisburg and then 
to Galveston. Burnet 's headquarters were for awhile at Ve- 
lasco and then at Columbia, where the first Congress met in 
October, 1836. 

It was determined to select a temporary capital, with 
the thought that the permanent seat of Government should 
be located later and further north than the then existing 
settlements. 

The two houses met in joint session on \ovember 30th, 
1836, to select a seat of government until the year 1840. 
The journal of this session recites that the folloAving places 
were put in nomination. Houston on Buffalo Bayou, Mata- 
gorda, Washington, Velasco, Quintana, Nacogdoches, Hi- 
dalgo, Refugio, Fort Bend, Goliad, Groce's Eetreat, Bexar, 
Columbia, San Patricio, Brazoria, Orozimbo. Upon the first 

187 



The First Capitals of Texas 

ballot no place had a majority. Houston led with eleven 
votes, Matagorda second with eight, and Washington seven. 
On the fourth ballot, Houston was chosen. On December 
21st, the first session of the first Congress adjourned to 
meet in Houston on the following May. 

''Houston on Buffalo Bayou," as it is written in the 
congressional record, was yet a city in prospect when it 
was selected on November 30th for the temporary capital of 
the Republic. 

The Aliens, who promoted it, had surveyed the site in 
August, 1836, and on August 30th had inserted an adver- 
tisement in the Bordens' paper which spoke in florid 
terms of the site chosen upon which they proposed 
to build a city. They described its location, ''The 
town of Houston is fifteen miles from the Brazos 
River, thirty miles from San Felipe, forty miles 
from Lake Creek, thirty miles southwest from New Ken- 
tucky, and fifteen miles by water above Harrisburg. Prep- 
arations are being made to erect a saw mill and a large 
public house." 

As soon as it was chosen as the seat of Government, in- 
terest in it was manifest. Ex-Governor Lubbock, in his 
memoirs published in 1900, tells of his advent here 
about January 1, 1837. He came on the steamboat 
"Laura," which he declares was the first boat that ever 
reached her landing. "Just before reaching our destination 
a party of us left the steamboat and took a yawl and went 
ahead to hunt the city. We found no evidence of a landing, 
and passed the site and ran up into White Oak Bayou, 
and got stuck in the brush. We then backed doAvn the 
Bayou, and found that we had gone past the city, and a 
close observation disclosed a road or street laid off to the 
water's edge. 



188 



Austin Located at Waterloo 

''Upon landing we found stakes and footprints. A few 
tents were located not far away, one large one was used for 
a saloon. Logs were being hauled fron;i the forest for the 
erection of a hotel where the Hutchins house now stands." 
(Now site of Southern Pacific building.) 

The Aliens had undertaken to provide a capitol building, 
and on April 16, 1837, they began its construction so as 
to have it ready for the session of Congress, which was to 
and did convene on iMay 5th following. This structure 
stood at the intersection of Main and Texas, where the 
Rice Hotel now stands. And here at the appointed time, 
12 o'clock noon, May 5th, 1837, the second session of the 
first Congress of the Republic met. The indomitable Bor- 
dens with their newspaper followed the Government from 
Columbia, but were a wee bit late, and in the first issue of 
their paper, published in Houston on the 2nd day of ^May, 
1837, they apologized for the delay. "We left Columbia on 
the steamboat 'Yellowstone' on April 16, but were delayed 
a week by the surf on the bar at Velasco. We were then 
stranded at Clopper's bar for a day, and reached Lynch- 
burg on the 26th, whence we proceeded at the rate of one 
mile an hour to the head of navigation at Houston on Buf- 
falo Bayou." When Congress convened in Houston on 
I\Iay 5th, Robert J. Walker, United States Senator from 
Mississippi, was a guest of the houses. During the next 
decade, he was the stalwart friend of Texas, and one of 
the most powerful factors in bringing about annexation. 

Ays fin Located at Waterloo. 

While the resolution which fixed the seat of government 
at Houston provided that it should remain the capital until 

189 



Austin Located at Waterloo 

1840, yet the location of the permanent capital was an ever- 
present interesting question. 

By common consent it was agreed that the name of the 
city should be Austin, and almost the same consensus of 
opinion decided in advance that it should be located as fai' 
north as the old King's HighAvay, and on either the Brazos 
or the Colorado. 

Though at the time there were few settlements in the dark 
and bloody ground north of the San Antonio Road, yet 
the frontier folks were pushing their perilous way into 
these wilds, and it was thought that the location of the seat 
of government there Avould make it a new center of settle- 
ment. The Second Congress, which met at Houston in 
September, 1837, named a commission to "inquire into the 
propriety of selecting a site on which to locate permanently 
the seat of government of the Republic." 

This committee was instructed to select such a site between 
the Trinity and Guadaloupe not further south than Fort 
Bend or more than twenty miles north of the San Antonio 
Road. It made a report in November naming a number of 
places which it had considered, but without selecting one. 
No action was ever taken on this report, and in December, 
1837, a second commission of five was named with instruc- 
tions to examine various sites proposed and make a report 
in the following April, 1838. This committee reported that 
it had selected John Eblin's League, on the Colorado, ad- 
joining the tract on which the town of LaGrange was 
located. 

The Second Congress, which was in session when this re- 
port was made, adopted it on April 17, 1838, and thus Eb- 
lin's League was chosen and Austin was to be located next 
door to LaGrange in Fayette County. 



190 



Austin Located at Waterloo 

Though President Houston had approved the resolution 
naming this commission in November, 1837, yet he vetoed 
the act of Congress naming Eblin's League as the site in 
April, 1838, giving the reason that since the capital was to 
remain at Houston until 18^0, it was premature to select a 
new site in 1838, for any intervening Congress might at its 
will change it. It was generally thought that President 
Houston hoped the capital would remain at Houston. 

There was a change in Presidents in 1838, and IMirabeau 
B. Lamar and David G. Burnet became President and Vice- 
President. 

The capital issue had been prominent in the campaign, 
and in January, 1839, Lamar approved a bill naming the 
third and last capital commission. The members of the 
commission chosen by Congress were A. C. Horton, I. W. 
Burton, William Menefee, Isaac Campbell and Louis P. 
Cooke. 

The act creating it stipulated that the site should be be- 
tween the Trinity and the Colorado and above the San 
Antonio Road. The committee first decided in favor of 
placing the city on the Colorado, and in April, 1839, report- 
ed ''that we have selected the site of the town of Waterloo, 
on the east bank of the Colorado." In their unanimous re- 
port they write: "The imagination of even the romantic 
will not be disappointed on viewing the valley of the Colo- 
rado and the woodlands and prairies at a distance from it, 
and the citizen's bosom will swell with honest pride when 
standing at the portico of the capital of his country he looks 
abroad upon a region worthy of being the home of the brave 
and free." 

The village of Waterloo was then the home of four fron- 
tier families, and was far in the Comanche countrv. In 



191 



Austin Located at Waterloo 

May, 1839, Edwin Waller, who had been chosen to survey 
and lay out the new city, was well under way with his work, 
and, guarded by rangers, the construction work began at 
once, and was so far advanced that the Government, headed 
b}^ the President and his Cabinet, reached Austin October 
17, 1839, and was received with much ceremonj^ which end- 
ed in a banquet which began at 3 p. m. and ended when the 
President arose at 8. Lamar was the chief factor in the re- 
moval from Houston prior to 1840, and tradition ascribes 
to him the selection of the beautiful site at the village of 
Waterloo. In Vol. 22 of the quarterly published by the 
Texas Historical Association, A. W. Terrell, who was long 
identified with public life in Texas, contributes an article 
which dignifies this tradition and makes it a part of our 
written history. Here is Mr, Terrell's narrative: 

"Lamar, then Vice-President of the Republic, came with 
a party of hunters in the autumn of 1837 and camped at an 
old fort in Fort Prairie, six miles below where Austin now 
stands. 

''Jacob Harrell was then the only settler living at the 
present site of Austin and no white man lived on the waters 
of the Colorado above him. His cabin and stockade, made of 
split logs, were built at the mouth of Shoal Creek, near the 
river ford. The hunters were awakened earh^ in the morn- 
ing by Jake Harrell's little son, who told them the prairie 
was full of buffalo. Lamar and his companions were soon 
in the saddle, and after a successful hunt were assembled by 
a recall from the bugler on the very hill where the capitol 
now stands. General Lamar sat on his horse and looked 
from the hill on the valley covered with wild rye; the 
mountains up the river, and the wonderful view to the 
south; and said to his companions, 'This should be the 
seat of future empire.' " 

192 




THE CAPITOL AT HOUSTON, 1837 



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'I'L'A'i'lID at the head of iiavi'^atlou. on the \V'est bank of Uullalo Bayou, 

,i]ir notice because, until now," the 
public, with the advantages of cap- 



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ij) 'i< now i;)r thi.- lir-^t tiiac t)ru'.)udit t.» \r 
jirojjrietors ncre not ready to offer it to tli 
iial and improvi.nionty. 

The to\vn oi Jiuuston is locatoil .if a ;;.}int on the river uhich uiu.^l ever 
(••oniuiand the trade of the largest and riciu.sL portion o! 'i'l n;!-.. By reference 
to the map, it will be f^een that the trade o! .'-an Jaciutc >;rin,' ( •r'-"-k, Xew 
Ivcatncky and the Bra^o?, above and Im-Iiuv l-'os t Ct li, ;;i ■ l nere'--^aril> come 
to thi- plac(.'. an(i wiil at this time vva.-;anc l:,- r.ii.'.l;: ^ i,,' i,t cf at Itast O.ve 
.Mji.mux Doi.{..\r!8 of capital, and when the rich iaiids of thiK country -]'\>U be 
•--ttl.d, a trade will flow to it, making it, bcyoiKl^ all doubt, the great inte- 
rior c(unnier(iareni})orinni of Tcxa<?. 

'i'he tov.n of Houston is distant l.> ndjes from the Bra70= river, 30 miles, a 
lit lie North of -Cast, froiii San Felipi <■. tin rto'lcs from Wa!-liini;ton, 40 miles 
froai Tiake ( reek, oU niih-- ;''uui L> \\L.e i";om Xew iCeutncky, and l<j miles by 
\^atef and 8 or 10 by larid above liarri-bnr^'. Tide w aler'nnis to this place 
and the lowest depth of water is about six feet. v'e.>sei8 from New Orleans or 
New York can sail without obstacle to this place, and steamboats of the larg- 
est cla?s can run down to Galveston Island in 8 or 10 hours, in all s^^asons of 
th<' year. It is but a lew hours sail down the bay, where one may take an ex- 
cnrsii.'a of pleasure and enjoy the luxuries of CpIi, foul, ovsters and sea bathing. 
(raivf-ton harbor being the only one in whic!) vessels drawintc a large i\rii(t of 
\vatcr can navigate, must necessarily render the l9lan<l the ^creat naval and 
coioiuercial depot of the country. 

The town of Houston jnust be the place, where arnjs, ajiiUiiitions and provi- 
hione for the government will be stored, because, sikurted in tiie very heart of 
the eotiritry, it combines security and the n^eaus vf easy di^itrihiition, and a na- 
tional armory will no doubt very soimi b« establis-hed at tlils point. 

There is no place in Texas nioi c healthy, h;n ing an ;d)undan( e of excel- 
lent f?prin^' v/atcr, and enjoying the sea breeze in ail Its fr<-hne-^. No place in 
Texas possespcs so nmny advantages for building-, havinj; Pine, A^-h, Cedar and 
Oak in inexhaustible quantities; also tlie tall and beantilui Magnoh'a grows ir 
abundan<-.e. In the ideinity are tine quarries of stone. 

Nature appears to have desij^iuited this place for the future :ieat of Govern- 
ment. It is handsome and beatUifully elevated, palubrioun and well watered, 
; and no%v in the very heart or centre of population, and will bt; ^o for a length 
of time to come. It combines two important advantages: a rommnnif.ntion 
\ with the coa>.t and foreiicn countries, and with the different portions of the Re- 
i public. .V? the country ^<hall intprove, rail roads will become in \jsc, and will 
'■ be extended from this point to the Brazos, and up the same, ako from this up to 
'the head water.s of San Jacinto, embracing that rich country, and in a tew 
years the whole trade of the upper JJrazos will make itn way into Galveston 
* !Bav throu[;h thi^ channel. ^ , ., . 

Preparations are now making to ..rcct a water Saw .Mill, and « latere I ub- 
lie llons-e for accommodation, will ?oon be opened. Steamboats 
. this river, and will in a short tiuje commence running regularly to th 



now run in 
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Tlie proprietors otfer the lots for sale on moderate terms to tho.,- u ho d.-ir. 
nnrove them, and invite the public to examine for tfiem^elve^, 
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Facsmile of tirst advertisement of the prospective City of Houston, taken from Wharton paper of '. 



The Coming of the Cherokees 

When Lamar approved the act appointing the commis- 
sion which made the final location, he asked them to go to 
Jake Harrell's cabin and look carefully over the site, and 
thcA^ did. 

It is an interesting coincidence that Austin, some years 
before, had chosen this site as a location for his permanent 
home, where he hoped to retire and live his latter days in 
peace, although this fact does not seem to have been known 
to the committee which chose it to forever bear his name. 
There is yet in existence a letter which Austin wrote from 
Coahuila to SamT M. Williams in ]\Iay, 1832, giving Wil- 
liams instructions for surveying for him what he character- 
izes as ''the most attractive spot in all Texas." The lo- 
cation is to begin, ''at the upper line of the Tannehill 
League about five varas beyond the Big Springs at the 
foot of the mountain" (afterwards and now known as 
Mount Bonnel). 

The survey was to include the "falls of the River." 

He accompanied the letter with a sketch made from mem- 
ory long after having visited this wild scene. "Here (he 
wrote), I shall fix mj^ residence on the Colorado at the foot 
of the mountain to live." 

His dream of retirement to this '"'most beautiful spot," 
was never fulfilled but his spirit may have led the locators 
in 1839 when thej^ went out into the wilderness to found 
the City of Austin. 



The Coming of the Cherokees, 

The native tribes of Indians in the timbered regions of 
Texas, when the first explorers came, were well disposed 
towards the white man, and indeed it is from one of these 
tribes of friendly folks, Tejas, that the name Texas comes. 



193 



The Coming of the Cherokees 

But at the time of the coming of the first colonists, these 
native tribes were neither numerous nor formidable. This 
does not describe the prairie Indian, as the Comanche 
and other tribes were called, who abounded in the vast 
region north and northwest of the Old King's Highway. 
The story of the Cherokee, and his advent into and exodus 
from North and East Texas, is one of the sad chapters in 
human history. The ancestral home of the Cherokee lay 
about the beautiful Blue Rido-e Mountains, and included the 
vast area watered by the rivers which flow from these moun- 
tains through Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia 
and Alabama. The white man was crowding him out of 
these regions early in the last century, and President Jef- 
ferson thought to utilize some of the wild western lands ac- 
quired in the Louisiana purchase upon which to locate these 
and other Indians east of the Mississippi, who were hinder- 
ing the progress of civilization. 

Ten thousand Cherokees had migrated into Arkansas ter- 
ritory as early as 1809, and while Texas was yet a Spanish 
province about 1820, Cherokee tribes had come down into 
East Texas and applied to the Spanish authorities for 
land grants. They had come to understand that a man must 
have a paper title to hold land. When Stephen F. Austin 
was in Mexico in 1822, seeking a confirmation of the grant 
the Spanish authorities had made to his father in 1821, 
Richard Fields, the chief of the East Texas Cherokees, 
was there urging a grant to his people. The most that 
Fields could get from the Mexican Government was per- 
mission to occupy the land as it were during good be- 
havior. This did not satisfy Fields or his people, and in 
1825, when the Edwards and their followers brought on 
the so-called Fredonian Rebellion at Nacogdoches, they 
found the Cherokee leaders in an ugly frame of mind 

191 



The Coming of the Cherokees 

against Mexico for not having' made them the land grant 
they had expected, and Fields and John Dunn Hunter 
made an alliance with the Edwards by which they were 
to jointly overthrow Mexican authority in Texas, and the 
Indians were to have the country north of the King's 
Highway — the San Antonio-Nacogdoches Road. 

But when Fields and Hunter went back to their people to 
have them carry out the bargain, the warriors rebelled and 
murdered them both. The chief cause of the insurrection 
was the proposed alliance with the white settlers, for they 
foresaw that there could be no such thing as white settle- 
ments in an Indian country, and they hoped to make East 
Texas a Cherokee country. 

Then, too, it subsequently developed that IMexican agents 
at work among them had promised Bowles, who succeeded 
Fields as Chief of the Cherokees, that if they would depose 
Hunter and Fields that the Mexican Government would re- 
ward them substantially, and it was called to Bustamente's 
attention that they hoped for a land grant in return for 
their loyalty. The Mexican authorities, including Teran, 
determined to make grants to the individual families of 
Cherokees, and there were negotiations for several years, 
and finally Colonel Piedras, commanding the IMexican gar- 
rison at Nacogdoches, was commissioned ''to put each fam- 
ily composing the tribe of Cherokees in possession of the 
lands which they are now possessing." There were no in- 
structions to issue them titles, and in fact it is apparent 
that the IMexican Government never intended to do this, 
but rather to allow than to remain tenants at will, as it 
were. 

Colonel Piedras and his garrison were driven out of 
Nacogdoches by the colonists in 1S32, before he had exe- 
cuted this commission, and though they continued to press 

195 



The Coming of the Cherokees 

their claims, they never got more than permission to remain 
where they were until the Supreme Government should de- 
cide their case. In this way they were postponed from 
year to year, and the Revolution in 1835 found them occu- 
pying the country where they had dwelt since they first 
came into Texas fifteen years before, but with no paper 
title, and this they knew, from past experience gave them an 
insecure footing. 

It is estimated that the Cherokee and other East Texas 
tribes associated with them had more than 1500 warriors 
and five times that many people at the outbreak of the 
Revolution. Their attitude towards the colonists at this 
time was one of grave concern, and in November, 1835, 
when it was known that a IMexican army was being massed 
for the invasion of Texas the following year, the Consulta- 
tion, which was the provisional Government of Texas, made 
a declaration to the Cherokees, ''that we will guarantee 
them the peaceable enjoyment of their rights to their land 
as w^e do our own." 

This declaration was made at the instance of General 
Houston, and he, John Forbes and John Cameron were 
named as commissioners to ' ' take such steps as would secure 
the effective cooperation of the Indians.'' Houston and 
Forbes made a treaty with the Cherokees February 23, 
1836, by which they were ceded a large territory. 

There is no doubt that this treaty and Houston's great 
influence with these Indians (for he was a Cherokee Chief) 
kept them from rendering aid to Santa Anna during the 
campaign of 1836. And there is less doubt that had these 
fifteen hundred wariors swept down through the settle- 
ments at any time after the fall of the Alamo, and before 
San Jacinto, the Colonies would have been wiped out. All 
Texas was on the move in those days of the runaway scrape, 



196 



The Passing of the Cherokees 

and thousands of familes would have fallen easy prey to 
these savage warriors while seven thousand Mexican soldiers 
were scouring the country from Bastrop to the sea. 

Fields, claiming to be a descendant of the ill-fated Rich- 
ard, filed a memorial with the Legislature of Texas in 1925 
urging recognition of this treaty. 

The Passing of the Cherokees. 

The Cherokee was perhaps the most enlightened of all 
the North American Indians. They had a highly developed 
tribal government, an alphabet, a kind of rude literature, 
and had stern notions of individual property rights. Many 
of them were slave OAvners, and those who came to Texas in 
the early twenties were as well qualified for citizenship as 
the average Mexican of that period, who was himself an In- 
dian of far less force than the Cherokee. 

The fifteen years of fruitless effort they made to get title 
to their lands had made them suspicious of Mexico and of 
promises made them by Mexican officials and agents, while 
their great reverence for Houston had led them into a 
treaty in February, 1836, which was the salvation of the 
colonists. 

After San Jacinto the Republic refused to ratify Hous- 
ton 's treaty, and during his administration the Cherokees 
were left in the same suspense that they had suffered dur- 
ing the preceding fifteen years. 

Suspicious of everybody and of the white settlers in par- 
ticular, they were easily aroused and influenced by Mexi- 
can agents who were now sent among them, and began a se- 
ries of offenses which led to their expulsion from tho 
country in 1839. When Filisola retreated after San Jacinto 
under the armistice which Santa Anna had made, he took 



197 



The Passing of the Cherokees 

time to start intrigues with the Indians, sending agents 
among them to incite them to antagonism to the colonists, 
and these intrigues were kept up almost constantly for the 
ten long bloody years that elapsed before annexation and the 
Mexican War. It was not alone the Cherokees but the Co- 
manches and various other tribes Avho dwelt in the vast 
country north of the Old Kings Highwaj" who were wrought 
upon and led to take up the torch and tomahawk against 
the Texans. 

But retribution came to the Cherokees first, to the others 
afterwards. 

The story of the Cherokee expulsion has been often told, 
and I am going to briefly relate it here, taking the facts 
stated from the account given by John H. Reagan, who was 
in the fight. Reagan, who was a youth of twenty-one at the 
time, went with Lacy, the Indian Agent Avho was sent by 
President Lamar to notify the Cherokees that because of 
their repeated crimes against the whites and their continued 
intrigues with Mexican emissaries they must leave Texas, 
and go back to the territory of the United States, from 
whence they had come twenty years before. 

''When we reached the residence of Chief Bowles, he 
invited us to a fine spring near his house, where we were 
seated, and Lamar 's message was read to him. Bowles said 
he could not answer as to abandoning the country until he 
could consult with his people, and he was given ten days. 
We returned to his house at the expiration of this time, and 
he said his young men were for war, and thought they could 
whip the whites, but he knew that in the end the whites 
would win. He said that while it was true they never had a 
title from the Mexican Government, yet General Houston 
had confirmed their right to the country by treaty. 



198 



The Passing of the Cherokees 

"He told of a plan he had on foot to join his tribe with 
the main body of the Cherokees in the States and take them 
all to California, and asked for time to gather their crops. 
(This was June, 1839). 

"Lacy told Bowles he had no authority to give him any 
such time. Bowles then said it mattered little to him, that 
he was now eighty-three years old and would not live much 
longer, but he felt a great interest in the future of his wives 
and children. That his tribe had always been true to him, 
and though he differed from them as to the course he pur- 
sued, yet they wanted war rather than go, and war it must 
be. 

The colonists had determined upon their immediate ex- 
pulsion, and three regiments were approaching, one led 
by Rusk, another Landrum's Red Landers, and the third 
Edward Burleson's Regulars. While Rusk was waiting for 
the two other regiments to come up, Bowles was seeking de- 
lay so that warriors from other tribes might reach him, and 
Rusk and Bowles agreed upon a neutral line that was not to 
be crossed by either party without giving notice to the other. 
About sunrise on the morning of July 15th, John Bowles, 
a son of the Chief, and Fox Fields, son of Richard Fields, 
former Chief, rode to our camp and notified Albert Sidney 
Johnston that they were ready to move north across the neu- 
tral strip, and General Johnston thanked them and told 
them that the Texans would cross the Neches after them. 

"There were battles on the next two days, in which the 
Indians fought with great valour. Chief Bowles remained 
on the field on horseback, wearing a handsome sword and 
sash which had been given him by President Houston. He 
was a magnificent picture of barbaric manhood, and was 
the last to leave the field when the Indians retreated. He 
was wounded and his horse disabled, and he dismounted, 

199 



The Prairie Indians 

an'd as he walked away was shot in the back and fell. Then 
as he sat up with his face towards us, I started to him to 
secure his surrender. 

''At the same instant my Captain, Bob Smith, ran to- 
wards him with a drawn pistol and we reached Bowles at 
the same instant. Realizing what was imminent, I called 
'Captain, don't shoot him,' but he fired, striking Bowles 
in the head, killing him instantly. ' ' 

This graphic account was written by Judge Reagan many 
years later, and we all know it is accurate. 

The Cherokees moved north, and were subseqnently joined 
with scattered remnants of their once powerful tribe, and 
located in the "Cherokee Nation." Judge Reagan says that 
besides Cherokee warriors, there were Shawnees, Delawares, 
Kickapoos and Indians from various other small tribes 
then living in North and Northeast Texas engaged in this 
battle. 

General Houston was very bitter in his opposition to this 
campaign, and it brought down his great wrath upon the 
Lamar administration; and ever afterwards he held an al- 
most savage hatred for Albert Sidney Johnston, w^hom he 
regarded as a strong instrument in bringing it about. 

The Prairie Indians. 

Distinguished from the Cherokees and East Texas In- 
dians, the many wild tribes who dwelt and roved further 
to the west were often referred to as the prairie Indians, 
and the Mexican authorities w^ere always hopeful that there 
would be no alliance between them. There were a number 
of these tribes, but the most formidable of them was the Co- 
manche. It may well be doubted if this world has ever pro- 
duced a more hardy, vigorous, terrible specimen of physical 



200 



The Prairie Indians 

manhood and daring courage than the Comanche Indian. 
The Texas Comanche roved up and down the vast west 
from the Kansas prairies to the Gulf of IMexico, often taking 
side trips or excursions down into Mexico, where he always 
left a bloody trail. He rarely came east of the Lower 
Brazos, but there is not a village or hamlet west of the 
Colorado from Port Lavaca to the Red River that is with- 
out a tradition of his midnight visit. 

He would come south in the winter along with the buf- 
falo, which he called his cattle, and would seek the higher, 
cooler climate of the plateaus in the summer. 

There was not a year after the first colonists came in 1821 
that they did not depredate in the settlements, and during 
the Republic, stirred by iMexican agents and by the ever 
more obvious encroachments of the w^hite settlers, they 
w^ere a terror b}- day and by night. It was a custom of the 
Comanches after a raid into Mexico to stop by way of 
San Antonio and trade, and often after excursions into 
Texas settlements they would boldly come into San Antonio 
and offer their captives for ransom. On such occasions they 
would ride up to the commandant and require him to keep 
their horses and chattels while they went up town for a frol- 
ic. They made a kind of groom out of the small command 
which was depended on for garrison by the helpless popu- 
lation. 

Albert Sidney Johnston was in San Antonio on one oc- 
casion in 1839 when a band of warriors came to town, and 
relates an interesting incident. 

Essowakkeny, the Comanche Chief, dismounted, and 
pointing to his horses said, "There is our caballado, take 
care of it." ''Yes," said General Johnston, looking stead- 
ily at him. "You ride good horses; I take care of mine, 
you take care of yours." And the Indian met the fear- 



201 



The Prairie Indians 

less gaze of a warrior as bold as himself, and with a grim 
smile detailed some of his own men to watch his caballado. 

The story of the Conncil Honse fight in San Antonio in 
March, 1840, has been often told, and is indeed one of the 
most tragic in the annals of our Indian wars. I have read 
many reports of it, some given hj eye-witnesses, and the 
following is taken largely from the narrative of General 
Johnston : 

In February, 1840, the Comanches agreed to bring all 
their white prisoners whom they were holding for ransom 
into San Antonio and deliver them to their families, and 
make a treaty with the Republic. Three commissioners were 
named by the Government to meet the Comanche Chiefs. 

On March 19th, thirty-two Avarriors with their women 
and children came in for the pow wow. Twelve Chiefs 
met the three commissioners at the Stone Council House, 
and the talk was opened by the surrender of Colonel Lock- 
hart's daughter, who had been captured at Gonzales the 
year before. Colonel Fisher, one of the commissioners, 
asked them where the other prisoners were, and they re- 
plied that she was the only one they had. The Lockhart girl 
then related that there were others in their camps whom 
they were holding back for larger ransoms. 

Colonel Fisher told them of their wickedness, and de- 
manded that they bring in the other prisoners, and named 
thirteen persons whom they were known to have captured 
within recent months. Turning full upon them, he said: 
''Do you remember murdering two men, and carrying 
away this girl (Miss Lockhart) when you were returning 
from Houston last year under a flag of truce?" There was 
a silence for a moment after this challenge, when one of 
the chiefs arose, and standing his full height said, with 
haughty insolence, "No, we do not recollect," and sat down. 



202 



The Prairie Indians 

There was another pause, and he rose again and defiantly 
said to Colonel Fisher: ''How do you like our answer?" 
Colonel Fisher replied, ''I do not like your answer. I 
told you not to come here without all your prisoners ; your 
women and braves may depart in peace, but we will hold 
your chiefs as hostages until the other white captives are 
brought in." 

At tliis moment Captain Howard marched in a company 
of fifty soldiers. Instantly the Indians strung their bows 
and gave the war whoop. One of them sprang upon Cap- 
tain Howard, striking him down with a knife. In the in- 
terval of a few seconds all the chiefs were slain. There 
were twenty warriors without the building and w^hen they 
heard the war whoop inside, they all at once attacked the 
people, but all of them were killed save one, who escaped in- 
to a house. "Wishing to spare him, they sent an Indian wo- 
man to tell him tiiat they would allow him to leave the house 
unmolested if he would go peacefully. He defied them, and 
refused their permission, and stepped from the building 
with his bow strung and ready for combat. 

Mrs. Samuel Mavrick, in her diary published many years 
after, relates that she, with a crowd of bystanders, was 
watching some small Indian boys who had come in with 
the party do some clever target shooting at a tree on the 
river bank. When the war whoop sounded and before the 
onlookers realized what it meant, one of these boys turned 
like a flash and shot an arrow into the crowd, striking a 
bystander in the heart. Years of terrible, bloody warfare 
with the Comanches and their allied tribes followed this 
fateful day. 

A quarter of a century later they were still on the war- 
pnth on the northwestern frontier, and my father was in 
many a battle with them. The year I was born, 1873, a 

203 



The Santa Fe Expedition 

party of Comanches murdered a family within a few miles 
of our frontier home. 



The Santa Fe Expedition. 

Lamar's administration, 1838-1841, represented in most 
respects the very opposite of that of General Houston, which 
preceded it, and the second administration of Houston, 
which immediately followed. Houston would conciliate the 
Indians — Lamar would exterminate them. Their financial 
and foreign policies differed. Lamar would have a bank 
with certain restrictions — Houston, as the disciple of Jack- 
son, regarded a national bank as a vile institution. General 
Houston was not eligible under the constitution to succeed 
himself in 1838, but he was during the entire three-year 
term of Lamar, a candidate to succeed Lamar, and during 
this interval was elected to the Congress of the Republic, 
where he devoted himself largely to consistent opposition to 
the Lamar administration. 

The ill-fated Santa Fe expedition was generally regarded 
as the greatest failure of Lamar, whose entire term was re- 
plete with disasters, due, however, in most instances to 
causes beyond the aid of statesmanship. 

After the Revolution in 1836, Texas had always claimed 
the Rio Grande as its boundary and had been ambitious 
enough to contend for all the territory along that river 
to its source in what is now the Colorado, thence to the 
forty-second parallel and back along the southern and 
western boundaries of the Louisiana purchase as fixed by 
the De Onis treaty for the boundary between the United 
States and Spain. 

Word came to Texas in 1839 that the people of Santa Fe, 
which was on the east of the Rio Grande, hence technically 



204 



The Santa Fe Expedition 

Texas territory, were hostile to the Mexican Government, 
and had rebelled and murdered a governor sent out Xrom 
the City of Mexico. 

Word also came that the inhabitants of that remote place 
and the environs thereabout might be induced to acknowl- 
edge Texas sovereignty. 

There was much discussion during 1839 and 1840 of a 
proposed expedition to Santa Fe, and an effort to divert the 
large trade which was carried on between that region and 
St. Louis to some gulf port. 

A bill was urged in Congress for an appropriation for 
such a project, but it was defeated largely by the influence 
of Representative Sam Houston. Lamar determined, how- 
ever, to send it anyway, and, early in 1841, named Hugh 
McLeod military commander, authorizing him to raise vol- 
unteers for the expedition. 

President Lamar, who was great on proclamations, and, 
like another President we have seen in our own day, a bril- 
liant writer, issued a salutary declaration, offering the 
people of that far country the blessings of Texas citizen- 
ship, and it was sent ahead by one Dryden, an American 
merchant who had lately lived at Santa Fe. A commission 
was created to set up a government there when the people 
voluntarily accepted our proffered blessings, although the 
military were warned not to force submission upon these 
people, but to merely conquer them and set up a new gov- 
ernment if they were willing to be conquered and have 
a new government. The commission was directed to take 
possession of all public buildings and governmental agen- 
cies, provided it could be done peacefully. With these im- 
possible instructions, the expedition moved out on June 
21, 1841, and took its long weary way across roadless wilds 
for nearly one thousand miles. There were about two hun- 



205 



The Santa Fe Expedition 

clred and seventy vokinteer soldiers, accompanied by fifty 
odd merchant traders and other persons. In one month 
they made two hundred miles, and in September, after 
hardships almost unbelievable, they were in what is now 
New Mexico. 

They suffered from drouth and for food, and were har- 
assed by Indians, and late in September a detachment was 
sent ahead, the main body limping along in the rear. 

Governor Armijo, fully apprised of their approach, was 
on the lookout for them, and with a show^ of military 
force and through the treachery of a young lieutenant, 
Lewis, who was one of the Texas party, both divisions of the 
bedraggled expedition were induced to lay down their arms, 
which they did as an evidence of the perfectly pacific pur- 
poses for which President Lamar had sent them. 

They were no sooner disarmed than all of them were 
started on foot as prisoners for the City of Mexico, in 
charge of a base brute named Salazar. Some died by the 
w^ayside from starvation and sickness. Others were mur- 
dered by their guards, and those hardy enough to survive a 
twelve-hundred-mile march under such circumstances were 
thrown into dungeons in the City of Mexico when they 
reached there. 

After a time they w^ere all released. George W. Kendall, 
one of the proprietors and founders of the New Orleans 
''Picayune," accompanied the expedition from Austin, 
and after a long imprisonment was released in the City of 
Mexico the next year. In 184^ he published Kendall's 
^' Santa Fe Expedition," which is, from a standpoint of hu- 
man interest and literary merit, the greatest book that has 
ever been written about Texas and the Texans. It created 
a great sensation in its day, and was widely read in xVmerica 
and Europe. 



206 



• The Santa Fe Expedition 

One reading it now after eighty years is charmed with its 
literary style and splendid narrative. His description of 
the journey across Texas, the capture near Santa Fe, the 
story of the tyrant Armijo, the long, terrible march to Mex- 
ico, and above all his wonderful glimpses of the City of 
Mexico after he was liberated by Santa Anna, should be 
read by every Texan of every generation. Taken at random 
from the pages of this wonderful book, I relate his story of 
Lieutenant Hovnshy's ride : 

''We were being marched along at a rapid pace and near- 
ing Albuquerque when a single horseman was seen speed- 
ing across the fields. 

''Soon he was up with the rear of our party, when check- 
ing his horse into a prancing canter, he politely raised his 
hat and addressed the prisoners as gentlemen while riding 
along the line. His horse was a beautiful black charger, 
and he a handsome young Mexican, dressed in green velvet 
trousers with a neatly fitting jacket somewhat faded and 
worn. 

''The horseman rode twice up and down the line of pris- 
oners, nodding gracefully as he passed, and eyeing the 
crowd as though in search of someone. By and by his eye 
fell on Lieutenant Hornsby, the best dressed man among 
us. His Texas Dragoon jacket was new and his blanket was 
showy red. 

"The cavalier at once checked his horse on seeing Horns- 
by, and asked the Lieutenant if he were tired. The long 
march had fatigued us all, and when Hornsby answered 
in the affirmative, the horseman bade him mount behind 
and said he would carry him a pace and rest his weary limbs. 
Instantly Hornsby was seated behind his new friend. In a 
moment the rider wheeled his horse, plunged lieavy spurs 
into his flanks, and dashed away at a speed that was truly 

207 



The Santa Fe Expedition 

amazing, across the fields, jumping irrigating ditelies. We 
were being marched on towards Albuquerque, bat as best 
we could, watched the fleeing figures until all we cuuld see 
was Hornsby's red blanket disappearing in the distance 
Later in the same day, after we had been marched out of 
Albuquerque, the horseman reappeared bringing Hornsby 
with him, and dropping him along the line galloped away. 
The Lieutenant wore, instead of his Texas Dragoon coat, 
a half worn jacket much too small, and his shoAvy red 
blanket ^vas gone. 

^'ITe related this story: A hard ride of three or four 
miles brought them to a house of somewhat neater con- 
struction than other Mexican dw^ellings. It ^vas a solitary 
house half a mile from the road. Here they dismounted, 
and the Mexican politely led the way into a room in which 
the furniture and appointments w^ere luxurious. Scriptural 
paintings adorned the walls, and the sideboard bore de- 
canters and cut glass, and the Lieutenant was invited to help 
himself to a decanter of brandy. At this moment the wife 
of the cavalier, a mild eyed woman, entered, and graciously 
led the way to the dining room, where they all three par- 
took of a splendid breakfast. Both husband and wife 
were assiduous in their attentions, and pressed dish after 
dish upon Hornsby with a most zealous courtesy. After 
breakfast the good wife brought cigarettes, and while they 
smoked the host opened the business Avhich had induced him 
to invite the Lieutenant to his dwelling. 

*'He had taken a fancy to Hornsby's neat fitting Texas 
Dragoon coat, and would exchange his somewhat faded and 
worn jacket for it. The guest protested he did not want 
to exchange his coat, besides, the proffered jacket was much 
too small for him. But the Mexican insisted, though the 
wife protested, and Hornsby was compelled to doff his 

208 




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Houston's Second Administration 

coat and was helped into the ill-fitting, shoddy jacket, 
which he wore when he was returned to us. The Mexican 
then brought a heavy, coarse blanket and exchanged it for 
Hornsby's bright red one. Indeed this last exchange was a 
good one, for the heavier blanket well served the Lieutenant 
on his 1200 mile tramp to the City of Mexico. 

''This business done, the Mexican indicated that he was 
ready to return, and the Lieutenant, now somewhat at 
home, walked to the sideboard and poured himself a stiff 
glass of brandy, and bowing to the host, tossed it off. 

*'As they left the house to mount and ride, the wife fol- 
lowed, and gave Hornsby a large quantity of dried beef, 
and when her husband's eyes were away, stealthily slipped 
a quarter of a dollar into his hand and murmured, 'Adios, 
Senor.' And away they rode across the fields, and the 
Lieutenant was restored to us wearing a worn jacket much 
too small and without his red blanket." 

Houston's Second Administration. 

One studying the history of Texas from the beginning of 
our era in 1821 down to the beginning of the Revolution in 
1835, is impressed with the fact that it is a biography of 
Stephen F. Austin. 

The annals of the second epoch, 1835 to statehood in 1816, 
are equally impressed with the great genius of Houston. 

He became President a second time in December, 1841, 
and Edward Burleson was Vice-President. 

The year 1812 was the most critical in the life of the lie- 
public. 

The country's finances were impossible. It had no credit 
at home or abroad. The Indians, stirred by the vigorous 
extermination policy of Lamar, but not exterminated, car- 



209 



Houston's Second Administration 

ried the torch along the whole frontier. The sad failure of 
the Santa Fe Expedition had brought gloom into every com- 
munity in Texas and tears for some citizen who had gone 
with McLeod and whose fate was unknown. 

Santa Anna, who was in power again in IMexico, sought 
this as a propitious time to increase hostilities, and in March 
a Mexican army under Vasquez suddenly appeared before 
San Antonio, and after occupying the city a few days, hur- 
riedly retreated across the Rio Grande before a force could 
be raised to meet them. 

But it is significant that in a very short time thirty-five 
hundred Texans were mustered from west of the Brazos and 
on the way to Bexar. But they were only minute men, un- 
able to leave their families for a campaign, and Avithout 
military equipment. About the same time ]Mexican forces 
from across the lower Rio Grande came as far as Goliad. 
The fact that a Mexican army had come Avithin eighty miles 
of the Capital, and the constant inroads of the Comanches 
about Austin, caused President Houston to convene Con- 
gress in June, 1842, in the City of Houston. 

In September of this year a second invasion, led by 
Adrian Woll, captured San Antonio and carried aAvay 
many citizens. District Court was in session and the 
Judge and lawyers were taken along. 

Woll made a move as though he would go on to Austin, 
but encountered a small force of about two hundred and 
fifty men under Colonel Caldwell a few miles out of San 
Antonio. Volunteers from nearby counties Avere hastening 
to the relief of Bexar, and one company of fifty-odd men 
rode out of LaGrange, led by Captain Daw^son, and came 
upon the rear of Well's army. Unable to effect a juncture 
with Caldwell's men, DaAvson's entire company Avere killed 
or captured in a bloody encounter fought on Salado Creek. 



210 



Houston's Second Administration 

iVgain tlie ^Mexicans learning that the country was aroused 
and men marching against them, scampered across the Rio 
Grande hel'ore a sufficient force could be mustered to meet 
them. 

There was a wild shriek over ail Texas for retaliatory 
war and an invasion of ]\Iexieo, and a command of about 
twelve hundred men under General Alexander Somerville 
marched as far as the border, but it was without supplies 
or equipment for an offensive campaign. 

All during the year volunteers from the States came into 
Texas in great numbers, hoping to be enlisted in a Mex- 
ican campaign. But the Government was without means 
to care for or equip them, and in many instances they were 
desperate fellows, and when unable to go to war in IMexico 
made much trouble in Texas. 

After some marches and counter-marches up and down 
the Rio Grande, Somerville 's army returned home, but a 
small detachment of daring fellows would invade Mexico, 
and three hundred of them elected Captain William S. 
Fisher as their leader, and crossed the river and laid siege 
to the town of ]\[ier. After hard fighting and many losses, 
they were compelled to capitulate to vastly superior num- 
bers, and were started on a long journey to the City of 
Mexico. After many days the prisoners by concerted ac- 
tion managed to escape, but they were in the heart of Mex- 
ico, and were unable to reach the border, and one hundred 
and sixty of the original three hundred and four who had 
first crossed over for a conquest of Mexico Avere recaptured 
and brought up to a place where, under orders from Santa 
Anna, each tenth man was shot. 

One hundred and sixty beans were put in a jar, one- 
tenth of them were black, the others white, and the Texans 



211 



Houston's Second Administration 

were made to dra^Y and those who drew black beans were 
forthwith shot to death. 

The ]\Iexican authorities were very anxious for the 
honor of martyrdom to fall on Captain Ewing Cameron, 
and he was made to draw first, but got a white bean. 

After this decimation the remaining prisoners were start- 
ed again for Mexico, and as they neared the city orders 
came to shoot Captain Cameron at once, and thej^ were 
promptly obeyed. The remnant reached the Capital while 
the Santa Fe prisoners were yet in dungeons. The fre- 
quency of Mexican raids upon San Antonio and the con- 
stant fear that Austin inight be included in the next excur- 
sion made it unsafe to keep the seat of Government there 
for a time, and Houston held forth at Washington on the 
Brazos, where he convened the regular session of the Sev- 
enth Congress in November, 1842. This aroused much ire 
among the frontier folks on the Colorado, who successfully 
resisted the removal of the archives. The greatest effort of 
Houston's second administration was to bring about annex- 
ation with the United States, which he cleverly aided by 
open negotiations with England designated to arouse the 
people in the States with the danger of English sovereignty 
in Texas. 

Justin H. Smith, recently professor of Modern History in 
Dartmouth College, has written an elaborate work upon the 
annexation of Texas, and speaking of Houston at this epoch 
says : ' * Endowed with a remarkably fertile and crafty mind, 
trained successfully as an American politician, finished in 
the school of Indian cunning, a gambler of long experience, 
a genius in the art of political histrionics, a diplomat whose 
only idea of method was to triumph and not be found out, 
a statesman able and determined, Houston worked in a sit- 
uation beautifully adapted to facilitate the concealment of 



212 



REPUBLIC OF TEXAS 

and boundaries «s cti^med tj T«•;^a$ 

from DecemSer 19, 1836 to 

November 25, 1850 




GULF OF 
MEXICO 



In the Treaty of Velasco, negotiated with General Santa Anna shortly 
after the Battle of San Jacinto, the Rio Grande was fixed as the bound- 
ary between Texas and Mexico, but Mexico owned all the country west 
and south of the Louisiana Purchase, and the first Congress of Texas, in 
December, 1836, defined the limits of the Republic as shown by the red 



213 



Houston's Second Administration 

his aims/' A report made by a British agent to his Gov- 
ernment about this time said of him : ' ' He is pure handed 
and manly, actuated by a grand ambition to associate his 
name with a nation's rise." 

About this critical time in our history, John Tyler, Presi- 
dent of the United States, initiated a move to annex Texas, 
which after three years of varying fortune triumphed in 
the closing hours of his administration. But the salvation 
of Texas in these gloomy years was the constant stream of 
immigration which flowed across its borders without ceas- 
ing, so that the thirty thousand at the time of the Revolu- 
tion were one hundred thousand at the time of annexation. 



lines on this map. They follow the Rio Gi'ande to its source, in what is 
now Colorado, thence due north to the De Onis-Adams line between the 
Louisiana Purchase and Spanish territory on the 42nd Degree Latitude, 
in what is now Wyoming, and follow that line east and south to the 
mouth of the Sabine, as shown by the celebrated Melish Map of 1818, 
which is named in the De Onis Treaty. Melish misplaced the 100th 
Meridian, and this caused the loss of Greer County thirty years ago. 

When Texas entered the Union in 1846 it claimed these boundaries 
until 1850, when it relinquished all territory outside its present limits 
for ten million dollars, which went to pay the debts of the Republic. 
The territory thus released embraced about 65,000 square miles of the 
present State of New Mexico, 19.000 of Colorado, 4,000 of Wyoming, 
7,700 of Kansas, and 5,600 of Oklahoma. 



214 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS 

The story of the annexation of Texas to the United 
States is one of the most interesting in our political an- 
nals. By almost unanimous vote, the people of Texas 
offered to enter the American Union at the first election 
held in 1836. This offer was rejected by Congress in 
1837, under the great pressure brought to bear by the 
abolitionists. So overwhelming was this defeat that all 
hope seems to have died out for the next five years. 
In 1843, President Tyler started a crusade for that result, 
which he pushed with great vigor until the close of his 
term in 1845, when he succeeded in getting favorable leg- 
islation through Congress only a few days before he sur- 
rendered office to Polk. The annexation of Texas was the 
largest question before the American people from 1843 to 
1846, and Avas the paramount issue in the Presidential 
campaign of 1844. 

It kept Henry Clay out of the presidency and was the 
rock which wrecked the "Whig party. It defeated the nom- 
ination of Van Buren at Baltimore in 1844, and brought 
about that of James K. Polk, the first "dark horse" ever 
named for the presidency. 

It resulted in the keenest diplomatic game ever played 
on this continent, in which the frontier folks won over the 
representatives of England and France. It stopped the 
aggressions of England in North America, and played a 
powerful part in the acquisition of Oregon, and last, but 
not least, it resulted in a war with Mexico which carried 
our flag to the Pacific. 



215 



1 iRST Efforts at Re-Annexation 

First Efforts at lic-Anncxation. 

Jefferson had purchased Louisiana, and Monroe had ac- 
quired the Floridas, and so when John Quincy Adams be- 
came President in 1S24, he was anxious to do his bit in ex- 
tending our boundaries. He was aided in this ambition by 
no less person than Henry Clay, "who was his Secretary of 
State. 

The first American ^linister to Mexico after that country 
became free from Spain, went with instructions to open ne- 
gotiations for the purchase of Texas down to the Rio 
Grande. Secretary Clay gave him a schedule of prices to 
offer for the country to the Rio Grande, or to the Nueces, 
or to the Colorado, or even the Brazos, and furnished him 
with arguments to advance why iMexico should sell. 

One of these was that the Comanche Indians who infest- 
ed the countr}' could be sold with it, and the responsibility 
of diplomatic relations with these war-like folks would pass 
to the purchaser, that the United States would take the 
land with the incumbrance, so to speak. 

Though these advancements met with no favor in IMexico, 
Clay and Adams continued them during their entire admin- 
istration. When General Jackson became President, suc- 
ceeding Adams, he was even more zealous for the repurchase 
of the land which Monroe had given up for Florida, and for 
eight long years, even up to San Jacinto, the American 
Minister in JMexico kept up the scheme of buying Texas. 
The President was ably aided by his skillful Secretary of 
State, Martin Van Buren. 

During those years, 1825-1837, it seemed conceded in 
the States that the acquisition of Texas was devoutly de- 
sired by all. The Texas colonists fresh from the States 
came imbued with this idea, and when separation from 



216 



First Efforts at Re-Annexation 

Mexico was in prospect in 1835 and 1836, the people of 
Texas naturally expected to be incorporated in the Ameri- 
can Union without dela}^ 

When the Colonial Convention met at AYashington on 
the Brazos in March, 1836, and a government was organized 
and a constitution written, a resolution was passed providing 
for the submission to the people of the question of annexa- 
tion to the United States, at the same time the constitution 
was submitted for ratification. This was done at the Sep- 
tember election held in 1836, when Houston was elected 
President and the constitution ratified. Only eighty-nine 
votes were cast against annexation. 

But the San Jacinto campaign and the capture of Santa 
Anna had turned the eyes of all the world on Texas. ]\Iex- 
ico bitterly complained to Europe that the United States 
had backed and fomented the Eevolution to get Texas. 
Companies of soldiers had been openly equipped and had 
marched with flag and drum out of many American cities 
to aid Texas in its war for freedom, and the Revolution was 
furnished and financed in the United States. These things 
were pointed to by suspicious persons in Europe as well as 
Mexico as an evidence that the Washington Government was 
an instigator of the Revolution. This led the Government 
to issue a neutrality warning, the effect of which may be 
fairly seen in the case of Captain Grundy, United States 
District Attorney, who was raising a company in Nashville 
for service in Texas. He issued a terrible warning : ' ' I have 
orders to arrest and prosecute every man who may take up 
arms in the cause of Texas or in any way violate United 
States neutrality," said he. ''I vrill prosecute any man in 
my command who takes up arms in Tennessee against ]\Iex- 
ico, and I will lead you to the border to see that our neu- 
tralitv is not violated as long as we are on our soil/' 



217 



First Efforts at Re-Annexation 

The people of Texas were therefore little prepared for 
the reception they got in the United States during the 
Van Bnren administration, 1837-41. 

At first the atrocities of the Alamo and Goliad had 
aroused the American people to a frenzy, and the quick 
success at San Jacinto to an enthusiasm, both of high de- 
gree. Benton of Missouri declared in the United States 
Senate that Houston was the first general since Marc Antony 
who had captured the head of a government and chief of an 
army in a single stroke. 

Henry Clay, late Secretary to John Quincy Adams, and 
now a Senator, made felicitous remarks, and offered a reso- 
lution in the United States Senate hinting at the recogni- 
tion of Texas Independence. 

But the "tumult and the shouting*' soon died, and at 
home and abroad forces antagonistic to Texas and the Tex- 
ans were loosed, so that instead of immediate annexation, as 
all Texas hoped, even recognition was only gained after a 
bitter fight, and annexation, deserted by its former friends 
and fought by the frantic forces of abolition, was delayed 
for ten long years. 

Even President Jackson, who during eight years had 
continued to dicker for the purchase of Texas, and who 
spent his closing years working for annexation, turned 
conservative when the Texas agents arrived in 1836 and be- 
gan their overtures for recognition and hints at annexation. 
He reminded them that the United States had treaty obli- 
gations with Mexico which must be observed, and expressed 
regret that the people of Texas had voted for annexation 
before its independence had even been recognized. When 
strong, stern men like Jackson wavered, what could be ex- 
pected of the average American politician of the Van Buren 
type? 



213 



TEX.A.S Rejected in 1837 

It may be doubted whether the American Congress would 
have voted recognition when it did in February, 1837, had 
not the Mexican Minister to the United States acted the fool. 
He bullied and talked too much, and finally asked for his 
passports and went home. Jackson thought it was enough 
for him to bring about recognition, and suggested that an- 
nexation, which he devoutly wished, be left to a northern 
President. 

He went out of the office in March, 1837, and retired to 
his home in Tennessee. But he devoted the closing years 
of his life to the consummation of annexation, and it may be 
truly said that Ex-President Jackson and President Tyler 
were the greatest individual forces in the United States 
in bringing this result. 

Texas Bejecicd hi 1837. 

Martin Van Buren, of New York, became President of 
the United States in March, 1837, and the Congress which 
assembled in that year wa-estled mightily vrith the annexa- 
tion of Texas. The American Anti-Slavery Society set it- 
self to the task of preventing it at any cost. Petitions and 
memorials circulated and signed by abolitionists poured 
upon Congress in such numbers that a member said they 
could only be measured by the cubic foot. It was said that 
in this single session six hundred thousand signatures were 
presented against annexation. Channing, the Boston clergy- 
man, circularized the country in wdld outbursts against ex- 
tending our sovereignty to the Southwest. 

John Quincy Adams, who as Secretary of State to Monroe, 
declared the greatest event of his life w-as the signature of 
the De Onis treaty, by which w^e acquired Florida, and who 
as President schemed for four years to acquire Texas, was 



219 



Texas Rejected in 1837 

now (in 1837) a member of the House of Representatives, 
and wrote in his cliar}': ''The annexation of Texas to the 
Union is the first step to the conquest of all jMexico, of 
the West Indies, of a maritime, colonizing, slave-tainted 
monarch}', and of extinguishment of freedom." And the 
old man did not confine his activities to mere entries in his 
diary. When the resolution for annexation came before the 
House in that year, near the close of the session, the vener- 
able Ex-President made a three weeks' address in opposi- 
tion to it, which closed the session and defeated the meas- 
ure. A similar resolution introduced by Senator Preston, 
of South Carolina, in the United States Senate, was de- 
feated by a vote of twenty-four to fourteen. This seemed 
the death knell of annexation, and its enemies accepted it 
as final. In Texas all hope was abandoned and our peo- 
ple prepared themselves for an independent career. The 
question seems to have died oat so completely for the next 
five years that neither in Congress nor in the American 
papers was there any serious mention of it. In 1842 there 
was a spasmodic revival when it was known that Senator 
Walker, of Mississippi, was about to offer a bill for the pro- 
ject. But he got so little encouragement that he did not do 
so. The benevolent liberator, AA^illiam Loyd Garrison, de- 
clared at this time : ' ' It is impossible for any honest man 
to wish success to Texas. All who sympathize with that 
pseudo-Republic hate liberty, and would dethrone God." 

During these years, 1836 to 1842, Texas went through a 
dark and gloomy period, weak at home and derided abroad. 
The sympathy stirred by the struggle of 1836 was forgot- 
ten. Mexican influence in Europe was exerted to the utter- 
most against us. In the States we had left only a few 
friends in the South. The Van Buren administration inher- 



220 



Texas Rejected in 1837 

ited the financial follies of Jackson's regime, which follies 
did not reach high tide until the panic of 1837. 

Fortunes were swept away and the wild speculation of 
the day of inflated currency left many a Southern planter 
and slave-holder bankrupt. In those days of monetary 
disaster, Texas became an asylum for many a fugitive 
debtor. 

I was trying a law suit at Richmond, Texas, twenty-odd 
years ago, and a very old negro was a witness. They were 
proving by him some dates long before the Civil War, and 
he gave the year and month that his old master had brought 
him to Texas, when he was a small boy. 1 asked Uncle 
Remus how he remembered these things of so long ago, and 
the grey, garrulous relic of another day assured me: ''We 
left Virginia in the night, suh, ]Marse Thomas and all his 
niggers, and we travelled mostly in the night until Ave 
crossed the Mississippi River." So general had this ex- 
odus of fugitive debtors become, that throughout the South- 
ern States sheriffs would return writs of attachment and 
execution, with the simple notation, ''G. T.," which meant 
''gone to Texas." Back in the States, Texas was regarded 
chiefly as a refuge for runaway debtors. During these 
troubled years Mexico, always torn by its ow^n Revolutions, 
was never able to fit out an expedition to re-conquer Texas, 
but would continually send marauding forces across the 
river to plunder and harass our people, and twice these in- 
vasions came as far as San Antonio, which was captured and 
plundered. The Texans made several attempts to retaliate 
by invading northern Mexico, and when they did so the 
abolitionist press of the North would scream out: "That 
we were a nation of freebooters and pirates, molesting a 
peaceful neighbor nation." 



221 



Texas Rejected in 1837 

IMassachusetts was the ex-officio arch enemy of Texas 
and the Texans, and from it radiated such sentiment as 
found in Garrison's utterance above quoted, ''that one who 
would befriend Texas, would dethrone God." John Quin- 
cj Adams, of Boston, spent his last days going up and down 
New England in a scream of wild frenzy. He spoke softly 
and kindly of Mexico, the Mother Countr}^ robbed of its 
proyinees by "filibustering Texans," and closed his appeal 
with the declaration : "No act of Congress or treat}^ of 
annexation can impose the least obligation upon the several 
States of the Union to submit to such an unwarrantable act, 
or to receive into their family such misbegotten and illegiti- 
mate progeny. The admission of Texas would be identical 
with the dissolution of the Union." 

A Boston daily paper about the same time wrote: "AVe 
have territory enough, bad morals enough, public debt 
enough, slavery enough without adding Texas." Texas, 
under the pressure of such propaganda, sunk low in the 
world's esteem. Doctor Stephen II. Everett of Jasper 
Countj", one time a Senator of the Republic of Texas, made 
a trip through the States in 1842, and upon his return re- 
ported : "Texas in the Northern and Eastern States stands 
as low in the grade of nations as it is possible for a nation 
to stand and exist." 

Van Buren was defeated for re-election in 1840 by the 
Whig candidate Harrison, but the Texas question was 
considered so dead after 1837 that it was not an issue in 
the 1840 campaign. Sam Houston entered upon his second 
term as President of Texas in 1842, and he found the for- 
tunes of Texas at a low ebb. Despairing of help from the 
United States, he turned his attention to a European alli- 
ance, and with a skill rarely equalled in diplomatic history. 



222 



President Tyler Discovers Texas 

he played a game with England which was the chief factor 
in reversing the policy of the States! Oddly enough France 
had thrown Louisiana, which included Texas, to Spain in 
1762 to keep it out of England's hands, and Napoleon 
passed it to the United States in 1803 to keep it from Eng- 
land, and now forty years later, after many changes of sov- 
ereignt}' and fortune, the fear of English domination drove 
the United States to take Texas and w^age a war with Mex- 
ico. Indeed it seems that old England has played a power- 
ful part in our destiny. 

President Tyler Discovers Texas. 

In 1842, John Tyler of Virginia was President of the 
United States. A Democrat out of harmony v^ith his party, 
he had been elected Vice-President by the Whigs, and 
w^hen AVilliam Henry Harrison died after a few weeks' in- 
cumbency this Virginia Democratic AYhig ruled in his 
stead. The Democrats despised him as an apostate, the 
Whigs as an interloper, but he was a man of long political 
experience and no little political acumen, and he set his 
heart on the annexation of Texas. 

Nothing short of the power and prestige of the presiden- 
cy would have sufficed to enable an advocate of Texas an- 
nexation to make any headway in the United States in 1842 
to 1844, in the face of the terrible defeat in 1837, and the 
apparently overwhelming sentiment against it at this time. 
A President, backed by the party that elected him, would 
never have dared to hazard his party's success by es- 
pousing this dead, dangerous issue. 

But Tyler had no political expediency to impede him. 
Hated alike by Democratic and Whig leaders, he knew his 
political fortunes lay along lines hostile to them both. It 



223 



President Tyler Discovers Texas 

was generally conceded as early as 1842 that Henry Clay 
would be the Whig candidate for the presidency in 1844, 
and that Ex-President Van Buren would be the Democratic 
candidate. It was also known that the leaders of both par- 
ties devoutly hoped that the Texas question would remain 
dormant in 1844, just as it had in 1840 in the contest be- 
tween Van Buren and Harrison. There were strong South- 
ern leaders like Calhoun, Walker, of ]\Ii«sissippi, and others, 
who were always open champions of annexation, but no 
one in power with either party, no party leader, was willing 
to stand out for it, nor were they anxious to have to stand 
out against it. They simph- hoped it would not be inject- 
ed into the coming campaign, which was already well on in 
1842. 

But John Tyler was a nervous, energetic, active person, 
and he loaned all his energies and staked his political for- 
tunes on a campaign to ''re-annex" Texas. 

Every member of his cabinet except Daniel Webster, who 
was Secretary of State, resigned when he vetoed the Whig 
Bank Bill in 1841. But when Webster later learned that 
Tyler was bent on annexing Texas, he too resigned, and 
this gave the President an opportunity^ to name a Secre- 
tary more suited to his purposes, whom he readily found in 
Judge Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, v\^ho was indeed de- 
voted to this cause until his tragic death two years later. 

After the rejection of Texas in 1837, all discussion of the 
subject had been dropped, and it was now necessary for the 
Tyler administration to re-open the question in some way. 
When Houston was inaugurated President in 1842, he ex- 
tolled England as the all}^ and friend of Texas and warned 
his people to expect neither help nor sympath}' from the 
States. 



224 



President Tyler Discovers Texas 

Secretary Upshur sent word to Houston in a guarded 
way that the Tyler administration would like to^open ne- 
gotiations for a treaty of annexation. But the old Cherokee 
Chief feigned not to see or hear these overtures, and con- 
tinued his open parleys with England, which were meeting 
with a warm and ecfualiy open response from the British 
statesmen who desired to control the destiny if not acquire 
the territory of Texas. Houston sent Doctor Ashabel Smith, 
of Goose Creek, as Minister to England and France. Smith, 
next to Houston, was the greatest mind of the Republic of 
Texas. ' England had a powerful influence with INIexico, and 
tendered its good offices to fix a truce between that country 
and Texas, and the hint was had that if Texas would stay 
clear of the States, ]\Iexico might be induced to acknowledge 
Texas Independence, and thus put a stop to the eternal 
guerilla border warfare which had prevailed since 1836^. 
Even ]\Iexico, anxious to forestall annexation by the States, 
lent color to this hope and an armistice for a time prevailed. 
Houston foresaw that if he appeared favorable to the new 
proposals of annexation, he w^ould at once alienate English 
aid, and if Tyler should fail to carry the scheme through, 
Texas would be left feeble at home and friendless abroad. 
And though he desired annexation to his native land more 
devoutly than any other ambition in his long career, he 
frowned so coldly on Upshur's advances that the adminis- 
tration appealed to Jackson, then in retirement, to use his 
influence with Houston in favor of a treaty of annexation. 
Houston finally consented to open negotiations, provided 
assurances of aid against Mexico were given by the Tyler 
administration in the event the treaty should fail of ratifi- 
cation by the United States Senate. 

Houston's caution was to a degree frustrated by the 
anxiety of his constituents, who, hearing of the overtures 



225 



Tyler's Treaty 

from the Washington Government, and noting his osten- 
sible indifference, demanded steps to facilitate the project 
so dear to the heart of all Texas. And though he managed 
to keep the situation well in hand, yet the Texas Congress 
in December, 1843, voted to authorize a treaty of annexa- 
tion, and it was in fact concluded between diplomatic agents 
of Texas and the Washington Government early in 1844. 
So closely had these proceedings been guarded in the Unit- 
ed States that the treaty was signed before any wide- 
spread information regarding it had escaped there. Ru- 
mors had now and then been rife, and some American 
daily papers had published warnings, but no one took seri- 
ous notice of a project which was generally regarded as 
gone beyond recall. 

But Tyler's treaty must yet go before the Senate of 
the United States, and like another President who followed 
him with another treaty even in our own day, he must 
deal with the American Senate. 



Tijler's Treaty. 

The news of Tyler's treaty was soon out, and provoked 
a wild protest in the North and East. The storm center 
of this opposition was in and about Boston, one of whose 
dail}^ papers railed at it as "The contemptible scheme of a 
poor, miserable traitor, temporarily acting as President of 
the United States, a scheme which would end in ruin, 
bloodshed and disunion. We will resist it * * * with 
the last drop of our blood." 

Petitions were written, mass meetings held, and all 
through the Northeast the spirit which had defeated it in 
1837 was aroused for its doom in 1844. Even the gentle 
Quaker poet Whittier, the author of ''Barefoot Boy" and 



226 



Tylek's Treaty 

''Maud Muller," whose harmless rhymes we learned in 
childhood, took up his pen against us and wrote: 

"Like a lion growling low, 
Like a night storm rising slow, 
Like the tread of unseen foe; 
It is coming, it is nigh, 
Stand your homes and altars by, 
On your own free threshold die; 

Freedom's soil hath only place 
For a free and fearless race. 
None for traitors false and base"; 

and many more stilted stanzas advertising our wickedness. 

And the venerable John Quincy Adams rushed to his 
voluminous diary and wrote: "The treaty of annexation 
was this day sent to the Senate, and with it went the free- 
dom of the human race." 

But these screams from New England were met by some 
very plain talk from down South. "We had rather have 
Texas than New England," thundered a Tennessee Con- 
gressman, and all through the South there was open talk 
of withdrawing from the North, annexing Texas and ex- 
tending our territory to the Pacific. But the fear of Eng- 
land had been to a degree put in the hearts of many people 
in the North. It was told that the British planned to do 
the carrying of Texas exports, and was to have an entry 
there for all manufactured goods duty free ; that the plan 
was to exclude all American manufactured articles from 
the Texas market. And while Garrison thundered "That 
those who would befriend Texas would dethrone God," and 
John Quincy Adams saw the doom of the human race in 



Tyler's Treaty 

the Texas treaty, these things, though terrible, were more 
or less intangible like the minister's day of judgment and 
eternal punishment, while the loss of a commercial advan- 
tage or an open market was a present real distress, and the 
prospective wrath of God was not quite so terrible to a 
Yankee in those days as the immediate loss of a customer. 

One petition sent to a Congressman from Western New 
York declared in its preamble against the base iniquity of 
annexing Texas, but was accompanied by a postscript 
which advised that if their representative really believed 
England was about to take Texas, he was authorized to 
waive the iniquity and annex it. 

At the beginning of 1844, the stage was set in the United 
States for the presidential campaign, and the country was 
thought to be closely divided between Democrats and Whigs. 
Four years before the, Whigs had won, and this year they 
planned as they had often planned before and afterwards 
to renominate and elect Henry Clay, and ''Lord Harry" 
was compelled to say something about Texas. Being a South- 
ern man and having been one of the first to speak out for 
Texas in 1836, he was counted on by the administration to 
support the treaty. But he was destined to be neither right 
nor President in 1844, and he spoke out against it, and the 
Whig party turned its back on Texas Van Buren had the 
pledges of twenty-one States, including the solid South, 
for the Democratic nomination, and he planned to keep 
very silent on the Texas question, and he was a great 
master of the art of silence. 

He lived so close to the roar of abolition and anti-annexa- 
tion that he dared not speak for it. On the other hand, his 
principal hope for nomination and election lay in the South. 
All efforts to draw a statement from him were without avail 



228 



Tyler's Treaty 

for a time, when some of the Southern Democratic leaders 
laid a plan to '^blow Van out of the water.'' 

He was the protege of Jackson, who had made him Presi- 
dent. The old warrior in retirement was the greatest single 
force in the Democratic party, and the great passion of his 
closing days was the annexation of Texas and the circum- 
vention of England. These designing gentlemen who would 
''blow Van out of the water/' betook themselves down to 
the Hermitage and got a strong letter from Ex-President 
Jackson outlining what the party and Van Buren should do. 
Unable to keep silent longer, Van Buren came forth with 
his statement, long, involved and pointless, but against an- 
nexation at tins time. The treaty was sent to the Senate 
April 22, 1844, where it was doomed to remain for weary 
weeks. 

The Whig Convention met on May 1st, and nominated 
Henry Clay. There was no discussion of the Texas ques- 
tion in the Convention. No mention of it in the platform. 
They shunned it as they would the plague. They were so 
afraid of it that they did not mention Oregon, which was 
much coveted in the Northern and Western States. A dele- 
gate from Mississippi tried to be heard upon the question, 
but was unable to get the eye or the ear of the presiding 
officer. Those near him in the hall hearing the drift of his 
remarks, silenced him in short order. '^ Surely you would 
not inject this ugly Texas question and injure Henry Clay," 
they said reproachfully, and he lapsed into silence.' 

It was now a foregone conclusion that the Texas Treaty 
would not pass the Senate. 

Benton, who in 1836 had declared for Sam Houston the 
greatest military accomplishment since :Marc Antony, was 
the spokesman for the Democratic majority, and the mouth- 

229 



The Fall of Van Buren 

piece for Van Buren. He turned on the treaty and Texas 
with bitter venom. 

A few days after the Whig Convention adjourned there 
was another convention, held in Baltimore, which nominated 
John Tyler for President on a purely Texas platform. It 
was made up of self-appointed delegates from all sections 
of the country. It now seeemed sure that the Democrats 
would name Van Buren and denounce the treaty, and with 
both great parties opposed to it, Tyler hoped to get enough 
votes to throw the presidential choice into the House of 
Representatives, where it would be a free-for-all fight. 
With this situation prevailing, the National Democratic 
Convention met at Baltimore on the 27th of May, 1844. 

The Fall of Van Buren. 

The Democratic National Convention which met at Bal- 
timore in May, 1844, was the most remarkable one which 
had ever assembled during the fifty years of our national 
life. It was the first to name a ''dark horse" candidate. 

For twenty years Andrew Jackson had been the idol and 
leader of his party. At the end of his second term, he could 
have been nominated and elected again, but never considered 
such a course. It w^as the marvel of Europe that a man in 
power would voluntarily surrender it as he did. His man- 
tle had fallen on Martin Van Buren, who was elected to suc- 
ceed him in 1836, but w'as defeated for a second term in 
1840. 

But Van Buren had held the party together, and by 
shrewd management had all but assured his nomination 
in 1844. But for the sudden advent of the Texas question 
he would have been nominated. 



230 



The Fall of Van Buren 

The Democratic party had controlled the destiny of the 
country during its formative period, and had elected five 
out of eight partisan Presidents. Under Jefferson, Louisiana 
had been acquired, and Monroe had added the Floridas. All 
the traditions of the party were in favor of an expansion and 
the mastery of North America. But Van Buren was a man of 
small calibre, and fear of the abolition press had bullied 
him into a declaration against the treaty, and against what 
had always been the policy of the party. He had more than 
a majority of delegates pledged to his support, most of 
the pledges having been given before Tyler had so cruelly 
thrust the Texas question upon both parties. But the 
Southern leaders had sworn a vow that he should not be 
chosen. The voice of the chaplain's opening prayer had 
hardly died away when some enterprising person moved 
that the convention adopt the two-thirds rule, and that no 
nomination be declared until the candidate received two- 
thirds of the votes cast. 

The Southern delegates, instructed for Van Buren, voted 
for the adoption of this rule, for in it they saw his defeat, 
without bolting their instructions. The friends of Texas 
were now in the saddle, the convention was deadlocked, 
Van Buren was beaten, and the Southern delegate's brought 
forth and nominated Ex-Governor James K. Polk, of Ten- 
nessee, who was known to be ''whole hogged for Texas." 
The Democratic platform declared for the re-annexation of 
Texas and the acquisition of Oregon. George M. Dallas, of 
Pennsylvania, was nominated for Vice-President. 

The action of the Democratic Convention championing 
the cause of Texas at once notified the world that the issue 
was to be fought out in w*hat President Wilson would have 
called a ' * great and solemn referendum. ' * 



231 



The Fall of Van Buren 

But Tyler's treaty was still before the Senate, and it 
was yet in session. The Whigs had a majority of seven in 
that body, and on June 8tli they defeated the treat}^ a 
solid Whig vote of 28 out of 29 being cast against it, seven 
Democrats, led by Benton, voting with the Whigs. "We 
have killed the treaty (said Senator McDnffie, of South 
Carolina), but a ghost is sometimes more terrible than a 
living man." In the meantime a messenger whom Tyler 
had dispatched to Mexico for the purpose of offering to 
purchase any opposition which that country might have to 
annexation of Texas, returned with the information that 
that country was much stirred, and that no peace could 
be purchased if we should carry out these plans. 

Santa Anna, who w^as again in power there, asked his 
Congress for men and money to resist American ag- 
gression. 

The Presidential campaign in 1844 was not essentially dif- 
ferent from campaigns we have known in our day. The 
Whigs accepted the gauge of battle with hope and ardor. 
On one side the}^ cried: ''Polk — Slavery and Texas," On 
the other: ''Clay — Union and Liberty." A popular Whig 
cry was, "James K. Polk and George M. Dallas — One for the 
devil and the other for the gallows." IMass meetings were 
held in which Texas was represented upon AVhig banners 
as a forbidding looking female dressed in mourning. Dem- 
ocratic meetings displayed banners picturing her a beau- 
tiful maiden in bridal robes. Poor Clay found himself in 
an unhappy situation. When he had come out so boldly 
against Texas early in the year, he knew that Van Buren, 
whom he supposed would be his opponent, would do like- 
wise, and felt that there would be no issue between them^ 
and they both felt that it would not be a party ques- 
tion. 



232 



The Fall of Van Buren 

Now he saw Van Bureii overthrown and a Southern Dem- 
ocrat opposed to him declaring for Texas and Oregon. At 
heart Clay, himself a Southern man, was for annexation, 
and as the campaign progressed and the issue became doubt- 
ful, he wrote more letters, which made a bad matter worse, 
and let it be known: "That he had no personal objection 
to the acquisition of Texas; * ^^ * that he woald be glad 
to see it, could it be done without war with common consent 
and without dishonor/' 

The most powerful figure in the campaign was General 
Jackson, who, though old and feeble, held the acquisition of 
Texas as the last strong sentiment of his wonderful ca- 
reer. 

Hatred of England had ever been a passion with him 
and hostility to that country was the strongest single senti- 
ment which the Democrats sounded up and down the length 
and breadth of the land. The old warrior sat in his home 
down in Tennessee and wrote letters day and night, wrote 
with a feeble, trembling hand, directed by the fire of a yet 
powerful mind. It is estimated that he wrote hundreds of 
autograph letters to Democratic leaders north and south, 
making suggestions, giving directions. In one letter: "Sup- 
port the cause of Polk and Texas, let Tyler alone." In 
another — ' ' I am too weak to write much more, but with my 
last word I warn you against England, for it will grab 
Texas, if Polk is" defeated." Through Jackson's influence. 
President Tyler was induced to withdraw from the race 
and cast his strength to Polk. 

Sam Houston had secretly and powerfully aided the is- 
sue by creating an atmosphere which seemed to verify 
Jackson's warnings against England. 

Polk was elected by a popular majority of less than forty 
thousand votes. But defeat of the treatv in the Senate in 



233 



Tyler's Triumph 

preceding June had east a great calm over Texas. We had 
turned from offers of British aid to accept annexation, and 
with the door shut in our face by the Senate, Texas was de- 
graded before the world. At home credit sank to its low- 
est ebb. Annexation had been turned down so often by 
the American Congress that the Texas people did not ac- 
cept the election of Polk as decisive. They yet feared that 
the United States Senate would never accept Texas; that 
PolK could do no more than Tyler had been able to do with a 
hostile Senate. 

Mexico, angered at the turn of affairs, gave notice that 
hostilities were renewed, and Santa Anna began pretended 
preparations to wage a campaign upon Texas by land and 
by sea. 

Tyler ^s Triumph. 

John Tyler was a man of great energy, and the *' re-an- 
nexation of Texas" was the prime purpose of his adminis- 
tration. During the campaign of 1844 he had withdrawn 
from the race and thrown his influence to Polk, and he ac- 
cepted Polk's election as a victory for his great purpose. 

When Congress met in December, one of the first things 
President Tyler did was to send in a strong message urging 
legislation for the admission of Texas, and with it he sub- 
mitted data from Mexico, including the boast of Santa An- 
na that he was about to invade Texas and conduct a mer- 
ciless campaign for its reconquest. Mexico had been an- 
gered and aroused by the election of Polk on a platform 
which declared for acquiring Texas, and sharp, bitter cor- 
respondence had passed between the two countries. Then, 
too, Tyler had given his word to Houston in 1843 that if 
the treaty negotiated that year should fail, Texas should 



234 



Tyler's Triumph 

have the aid of the United States in the event Mexico re- 
newed the war against Texas. 

England was genuinely alarmed, and British papers were 
filled with warnings to that Government against allowing 
the United States to acquire Texas. Whatever doubt may 
have existed about the fate of annexation, as far as the 
United States was concerned, was dissolved by the ill-timed 
and unwarranted attacks by the English press and the in- 
trigues which England put on foot to block the Union 
of Texas with the States. 

The London ''Times" declared the election of Polk 
was the triumph of all that was worst in American life, and 
that England and all Europe must resist the extension of 
the United States to the southwest. 

The London ''Morning Post" exclaimed: "The Repub- 
lican monster must be checked." Many people throughout 
the United States and some of the leading journals were 
turned to annexation by these British indiscretions, which 
fulfilled to a degree the forebodings of General Jackson. 

And while it seemed politic to allow the matter to await 
the inauguration of Polk, in iMarch next, yet there was a 
general feeling that it was dangerous to wait. 

A prominent Democratic Congressman, speaking of Ty- 
ler's message, warned the country: "Let not procrastina- 
tion be the thief of Texas." Resolutions for annexation 
were promptly introduced in both houses of Congress, and 
from December to February the battle in that forum was 
waged and won. 

A resolution for annexation of Texas was. offered and after 
passing the Senate and the House, it had President Ty- 
ler 's signature on February 27, 1845, just five days before 
his term of office expired. 



235 



Tyler's Triumph 

The fight in Congress was a spectacular one, and the 
galleries were thronged from day to day as the debates pro- 
gressed. 

Benton, who had fought the treaty so bitterly in June, 
found ground to support the cause in February. Its final 
passage was by a strictly party vote, the AVhigs voting almost 
solidly against it. But there w^as a rift in the clouds of 
northern opposition, and most of the northern and east- 
ern Democrats voted for it. The Legislature of Ohio in- 
structed its Senators to support it. 

Tlie northern abolitionists received the result with ire and 
anguish, and Garrison, who in 1842 declared "That any one 
supporting Texas would dethrone God," now wrote in his 
Boston paper that the joint resolution of Congress ''was a 
deed of perfidy as black as Egyptian darkness." 

While the debates were proceeding in January and Feb- 
ruary, 1845, President-elect Polk came up to Washington 
from his home in Tennessee, and mingled with members of 
Congress, throwing the weight of his influence into the scale. 
^'The pressure of two Presidents and an Ex-President is 
too much for us," exclaimed a Whig Senator. 

The defeat of the treaty by the Senate in June had 
brought the Tyler administration face to face with its ob- 
ligations to Texas, which had been exacted by President 
Houston in 1843 before he would negotiate the treaty. He 
had stipulated, and Tyler had promised, that in the event 
the Senate should fail to ratify the treaty and the negotia- 
tions should bring on war with Mexico, that the United 
States would aid Texas and guarantee her independence. 

Tyler probably had no constitutional authority to make 
such a promise and less to perform it, nevertheless he acted 
promptly to make it good. On September 10, 1844, John 
C. Calhoun, Secretary of State, sent through Shannon, 



236 



Tyler's Triumph 

American Minister to Mexico, a most remarkable and vigor- 
ous paper which in terms warned Mexico to let Texas alone. 
Calhoun advised that the rejection of the treaty by the 
Senate did not mean the abandonment of annexation, but 
that the United States intended to acquire Texas, and any 
invasion of Texas by Mexico pending these negotiations 
still pending would be resented by the United States; that 
the President had fully determined that Texas should not 
suffer at the hands of INIexico because of the recent over- 
tures towards annexation. 

''If Mexico has taken offense at these negotiations," said 
Mr, Calhoun, ' ' it should attack the United States, as we are 
the ones who proposed annexation." 

The loud threats of Mexico, which became louder after 
the November election, brought Tyler's promise to Houston 
into a present obligation, and was a cause for Tyler's ur- 
gency in submitting the Texas question in December in- 
stead of passing it over to Polk's administration, which 
would not begin until March. 

There has been much criticism of Tyler and Polk for 
the war plans they carried on in the latter part of 1844, and 
during 1845. It has been written and millions believe that 
Polk without warrant provoked a war of conquest with Mex- 
ico. But when one remembers that Texas was a free coun- 
try when Tyler began negotiations for annexation in 1843, 
and that he had given President Houston his promise that 
it should not suffer as the result of these negotiations if the 
treaty should fail, and when we see Mexico blustering with 
preparations for a merciless campaign against Texas be- 
cause of these very negotiations, we are led to reverence 
the memories of Tyler and Calhoun and Polk for the mili- 
tary preparations begun in 1844 and carried forward 



237 



The Activity of England 

in 1845 and 1846, while the details of annexation were being 
worked out by both countries. 

The greatest triumph in American History after the 
Revolution of 1776 was the prompt, powerful way the 
Tyler and Polk administrations moved to solidify Texas and 
put the flag over the country west to the Pacific. 

The Activity of England. 

England had determined that Texas should not become 
part of the American Union, and hoped that Mexico would 
reconquer it, and long after all hope of this reconquest was 
obviously gone, it acknowledged Texas Independence. The 
overwhelming defeat of annexation in the American Con- 
gress in 1837, and the loud roarings of the northern and 
eastern press, misled England into the thought there was 
no chance that this country would ever accept Texas. 

AVhen Tyler's treaty of 1844 became known, there was an 
active and vigorous movement among English diplomats, 
and Lord Aberdeen sought an understanding with the 
French Government that the two countries would join 
Mexico in preventing annexation. Guizot, the Prime Min- 
ister in the Government of Louis Phillipe, seems to have 
committed his country to such a course, and if France had 
remained bound it is apparent that there would have been 
a world war if the United States had persisted in the course 
it did pursue. 

But when it became known in France that the Govern- 
ment had made such a commitment, there was an explo- 
sion such as can only happen in the French Chamber, and 
Guizot was denounced as the tool of England and for hav- 
ing turned on an old friend to serve the purposes of an 
ancient enemy. All hope that France would aid England 



238 



The Activity of England 

by force of arms was gone, yet the Government of Louis 
Phillipe did continue to give its moral support through dip- 
lomatic pressure to prevent annexation. But the British 
Minister at Washington forecasted the defeat of the Tyler 
treaty, and after the Democrat and Whig parties had named 
their candidates and made Texas an issue, Lord Aberdeen 
and his counsellors wisely determined to lay low and await 
results. They knew that any British activity at this junc- 
ture would mean the defeat of Clay, and their ardent hope 
was for his election, which they thought would close the door 
to annexation. The election of Polk upset all their calcu- 
lations. When in December, 1844, Tyler again submitted 
the question to Congress, and it became evident that it was 
to be rushed to a conclusion, there was a great activity in 
the British Foreign Office, and a definite plan was at once 
worked out. It was well known in London as in Washing- 
ton that what the people of Texas wanted above all things 
was peace and protection against Mexico, and a surcease of 
the ten long years of semi-warfare which prevailed. And 
so the English Ministry, bound to act in great haste, and 
bound to offer Texas some real inducement to stay out of 
the American Union, sought the seemingly hopeless task 
of inducing Mexico to acknowledge Texas Independence 
and make a treaty of peace Avith Texas upon condition that 
it would not join the Union. ^ This was indeed a bold 
plan, and one familiar with the Mexican History of 
this period will be struck with the height of British diplo- 
matic audacity and daring. Since the campaign of 1836, 
it had been the hope by day and dream by night of all 
Mexico to reconquer Texas. :\rexican officers who could not 
have been induced this side of the Rio Grande by any 
earthly consideration, were eternally swashbuckling up and 

239 



The Activity of England 

down the tropics declaring that they would soon lead an 
army into Texas. 

Every Mexican President or Dictator who ruled his 
alloted day could raise large sums of money through the 
Mexican Congress for a campaign in Texas. Santa Anna, 
who was now and then in power during this period, 1836 to 
1845, was always announcing vast plans for such a cam- 
paign. 

But the situation was desperate with the T3ritisli Minis- 
try, goaded on by an arrogant English press, which demand- 
ed that Texas be kept out of the American Union. A lead- 
ing London journal declared in brutal British frankness, 
that ''Texas, in fact all North America, should be under a 
kind of British suzerainty." ''The Bepublican monster 
must be diecked/' and since France would not agree to an 
alliance to employ force, it must be done by cunning. While 
the Texas question was being debated in the American 
Congress in January and February, 1845, and when it was 
obvious that a resolution declaring for admission would 
pass, Almonte, the Mexican Minister to Washington, de- 
manded his passports and let it be known that war would 
follow annexation. 

When Terrell, Texas Minister to England and France, 
succeeding Doctor Smith, reached London in January, 1845, 
he was bluntly told that news had preceded him that the 
new President of Texas, Anson Jones, was an avowed ad- 
vocate of annexation, and if so Texas need expect no aid 
from England in any of its problems. 

Mr. Terrell hastened to correct this erroneous impression, 
and reported that thereafterwards a ver}^ different atmos- 
phere prevailed, and he was given many kindly suggestions 
and offers of English aid which indeed were helpful, for as^ 



2-10 



Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos 

yet the Aiiiei-iL-au Congress had not passed the annexation 
resolution, and was still violently debating Tyler's De- 
cember niessnge. 

Diplo)uats GdfJier Along the Brazos. 

Foreseeing a shrewd diplomatic duel, and fully advised 
as to England's plans, President Tyler named Andrew 
Jiickson Donnelsfm, nephew of General Jackson, and a man 
of unusual force and sagacity. Charge to Texas. 

The British Government was and had for some years 
been represented in Texns by Charles Elliot, a former sea 
captciin, who had been so long in the country as to be well 
acquainted with its people and its public men. 

The French Government was represented by an impetu- 
ous ass, Compte de Saligny, who had found Austin an un- 
comfortable place to live, and after quarreling with every- 
body in town, had removed to New^ Orleans, where he looked 
after French affairs in Texas at a long range. 

In December, 1844, a few days before Tyler sent his 
last Texas message to Congress, Anson Jones became Pres- 
ident of Texas. Although it was known that annexation 
would be offered Texas in a few months, he wisely made 
no mention of this ever-absorbing topic in his inaugural 
address. President Jones had seen annexation offered and 
snatched away too often to be over-sanguine at present 
prospects. Shortly after his inauguration he advised Cap- 
tain Elliot that if Mexico could be brought to recognize the 
independence of Texas, he favored declining annexation, 
and he invited the British and French Governments to in- 
terest themselves to that end. This was just what England 
hoped for. Congress had not then acted on Tyler's Decem- 
ber message, nor did Jones know that the question had been 

241 



Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos 

put before the closiug session of Tyler's last Congress. He 
supposed negotiations would await the inauguration of 
Polk. While these assurances were being given the British 
Representative, Ashabel Smith, Secretary of State in Texas, 
wrote the Texas charge at Washington ' ' that the President 
(Jones) w^ished him to use his most strenuous exertions for 
annexation." When the news reached Galveston in the 
latter days of March, 1845, that Congress had passed and 
Tyler approved a plan for the annexation, Captain Elliot, 
and Compte de Salign}^, hearing that Colonel Donnelson 
was on his way from Washington, D. C, to Washington 
on the Brazos, with an official communication from Presi- 
dent Polk to President Jones, made great haste to Washing- 
ton on the Brazos, which w^as for the time being the seat of 
Texas Government. 

Once there they went into a long conference with Pres- 
ident Jones and Doctor Ashabel Smith, and urged many 
good reasons why Texas should remain independent. 

President Jones advised them that while he personally 
thought Texas should remain a nation, yet he realized that 
the people of Texas desired annexation, and he saw in him- 
self merely their agent. 

After many conferences with his Cabinet and after tah'ng 
the matter under advisement for several days, he finally, on 
March 29th, tentatively agreed with the representatives of 
England and France upon the outline of a treaty which 
they were authorized to procure from Mexico : 

1. Mexico consents to acknowledge the independence of 
Texas. 

2. Texas will not annex herself to any country. 

3. Boundaries to be fixed in final treaty or submitted 
to arbitration. 



242 



Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos 

While these worthy diplomats were procuring these 
things to be done they exacted that for ninety days from 
date Texas would not enter into any negotiations for annex- 
ation. These things done, Captain Elliot agreed in further- 
ance of the plan to go at once to the City of Mexico, and he 
and the Compte de Saligny scampered down the Brazos, 
the Captain going incognito to Vera Cruz, and the Compte 
back to his well stocked wine cellar at New Orleans, each 
thinking he had overawed the President of Texas, and 
outwitted the President of the United States. On their 
way out of town they met Colonel Donnelson, the American 
Charge, who was hastening for an interview with President 
Jones, and to lay before him and the Texas Congress the 
plan of annexation. 

It was known that the Texas Congress was overwhelming- 
ly for annexation, and since the Resolution of the American 
Congress only called for ratification by the Texas Govern- 
ment, it was planned by President Jones and Doctor Smith 
not to call Congress in session until these envoys had an 
opportunity to try their hands in getting the Mexican 
Treaty. President Jones hoped to be able to lay before 
Congress, when he assembled it, not only a plan for an- 
nexation, but the alternative of remaining an independent 
nation with a settlement of all troubles with Mexico, and 
this he did. 

Colonel Donnelson did not find a congenial atmosphere 
at Washington on the Brazos, when he arrived there on 
April 1, 1845, and laid the plan of annexation before Pres- 
ident Jones and his Cabinet. The President took the mat- 
ter imder- advisement, for he said the gravity of the situ- 
ation would not permit haste. 



243 



Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos 

When Colonel Donnelson urged him to convene Congress, 
he said he had decided to lay it before the people through a 
convention to be called for that purpose. 

Unable to get Jones to call Congress in session, Donnel- 
son sought Ex-President Houston, whom he found at his 
home in Huntsville, and was much surprised to learn that 
he too was unfavorable to an acceptance of the resolution 
which had passed Congress in February. He did not think 
it fair to Texas, and pointed out some sharp objections to it, 
and proposed that negotiations between the two countries 
be begun and a treaty of annexation agreed upon. He 
favored a treaty because it could be abrogated at any time 
b.y either party, and one wonders what would have hap- 
pened in 1861 had Texas come into the Union under such a 
treat}^ But it was explained to Houston that President 
Polk and Secretar}^ of State Buchanan did not think it wise 
to dela}^ while negotiations would be going forward, and 
he withdrew his objections at least to the extent that he 
used no effort to frustrate Donnelson 's plans, and took a 
trip to the Hermitage for a farewell to Jackson. Donnel- 
son was not openly told, but indeed he heard it on the streets, 
that an "offer from Mexico" might be made at any time 
and that the Texas Government was waiting for it. 

In the meantime April was well advanced, and the people 
of Texas had become very impatient of delay, and very 
strong pressure was brought to bear on President Jones to 
convene Congress and all kinds of rumors were afloat as 
to his designs against annexation. In fact a plan was well 
on foot to convene Congress anyhow if he did not act, and 
the murmurings were so loud and the criticism of the Gov- 
ernment so great that the Mexican Consul at New Orleans 



244 



Captain Elliot In Mexico 

advised his Government that a revolution was imminent in 
Texas. 

Yielding to these importunities before he had time to hear 
from Captain Elliot, President Jones issued a proclama- 
tion on April 15, 1845, calling Congress to meet at Washing- 
ton on the Brazos on June 16th. He calculated that this 
would give Elliot time to accomplish whatever could be done 
in iMexico. Doctor Jones* slow, calculating movements and 
Doctor Ashabel Smith's known views against annexation 
aroused much feeling in Texas in the spring of 1845, and 
the country was at a white heat as the hour approached for 
tlic extraordinary session of Congress in June. 



Caplaiii Elliot in Mexico. 

Cai)tain Charles Elliot was not a great man, but he was 
an energetic one, and he had lost no time in getting from 
Washington on the Brazos to Galveston, where, by a fine co- 
incidence, he found a British man-of-war at his disposal. 
He took' passage on this vessel, giving it out that he was go- 
ing to New Orleans, but was landed at Yei-a Cruz, from 
wliere he hastened on to the City of Mexico. 

Api'il, 1845, was an off season for Santa Anna, who was 
for the time being out of power and in exile (but he came 
back next year). Herrera was, between revolutions, as it 
were, President ad interim of Mexico, and to him and his 
Cabinet Captain Elliot, assisted by the British Minister to 
Mexico, addressed the proposition which he brought from 
the President of Texas. 

It contemplated that Mexico would acknowledge Texas 
independence, upon condition that Texas would not join the 
American Union, boundaries to be settled later. 



245 



Captain Elliot In Mexico 

The proposition at first aroused great opposition at the 
Mexican Capital ''Give up Texas, never," was the scream 
of :\Iexican papers and the wild boast of swashbuckling Mex- 
ican military men. But the British envoys worked power- 
fully on their fears. If they did not do this, Texas would 
be forced into the American Union for protection against 
the ''great military force of Mexico." "The acquisition of 
Texas by the United States made that detested country the 
next door neighbor of Mexico, and an effort would follow to 
conquer and annex Mexico." 

In proof of this the relators read from debates in the 
American Congress, where excited Whig leaders had openly 
charged that the Southern Democrats contemplated the ex- 
tension of empire to Panama and the Pacific. And as con- 
firmation of the perfidy of these Southern Democrats, if 
corroborations were necessary in the Mexican mind, they 
read and published the awful indictments brought against 
them by northern newspapers. These arguments were rein- 
forced by Juan Xepomuceno Almonte, ^Mexican ]Minister 
to the United States, who had left Washington upon the pas- 
sage of the Annexation Act in February. 

Almonte, who was a man of great influence in Mexico, 
urged his Government to accede to the British proposals, 
for he favored and impressed his people with the apprehen- 
sion that the acquisition of Texas meant the conquest of 
Mexico by the United States of the Korth. This fear had 
foundation with Almonte, for he had been at San Jacinto. 
But it was an awful thing for the Mexican Government to 
do: "Give up Texas to those mendicants who came to us 
and asked for land, and who forgot our kindness and bounty 
and turned traitor and brigand." How they suffered in 
the flesh as they struggled between this awful sacrifice and 



246 



Captain Elliot In Mexico 

the fear of seeing all Mexico become an American depend- 
ency. 

When the English diplomats pressed them to act, they 
professed a willingness to do so if England would guaran- 
tee IMexican sovereignty and the boundaries between Mexico 
and the United States, but just here there was a want of 
zeal on the part of Her Majesty's representatives, for this 
meant war, and after France had withdrawn from the pact 
of Guizot, England was not willing to go to war alone. Fi- 
nally the point was urged that Mexican honor was saved, 
since Texas was here suing for peace, and making a conces- 
sion in order to get the boon of Mexican permission to live 
and be an independent nation. 

While these conversations were going forward at the 
Mexican Capital, news came late in April that President 
Jones had issued a call convening the Texas Congress in 
June. Captain Elliot knew full well what this meant, and 
knew that the only hope of defeating annexation lay in his 
returning to Texas at once with a treaty between Texas 
and Mexico ready to Be presented for ratification when this 
Congress met. 

Daily during April reports reached Mexico that the Unit- 
ed States was sending war ships into the Gulf and was 
massing troops on the Texas frontier, and finally Elliot, 
and Bankhead, the British Minister to Mexico, succeeded 
in wringing and extracting an agreement from the Mexican 
Congress to make the Texas treaty in order to frustrate 
the designs of the United States. On the last day of May, 
1845, Elliot was again in Galveston armed with the :\Iexican 
agreement to make a treaty acknowledging Texas inde- 
pendence on condition it would not unite with the United 
States. But all the diplomats in the world could not have 

247 



Captain Elliot In Mexico 

accomplished the task that had been assigned this retired 
sea captain. 

AYhile President Jones hesitated and took matters under 
advisement and waited to hear from Elliot, things were 
happening in Texas. 

Colonel A. J. Donnelson, nephew of Andrew Jackson and 
accredited representative of the United States in Texas, was 
a modest, quiet person, who moved with great celerity and 
acted with great accuracy. He knew where Colonel Elliot 
had gone and what he was doing, and he was in constant 
touch with the leaders of thought in Texas, and worked 
with them to stir public sentiment. He made great capital 
out of the intrigues of England, and exposed them to such 
men as Sidney Sherman, Edward Burleson, General Rusk 
and others who were working with him. 

Colonel Elliot helped Donnelson by his free talk, seeing 
upon his return that the tide had set heavily against him. 
He talked loosely and wildly of coming trouble, and pre- 
dicted dire disaster if Texas attempted to join the Union. 
He said that England and France would join Mexico in a 
war against the United States, and that Texas would be the 
battleground of a long, bloody world war. 

Speaking as the accredited agent of England, many be- 
lieved that he knew what he was talking about, and that 
grave trouble would follow. But the people who had come 
into the wilderness with Austin, and Avho had suffered the 
hardships of the quarter of a century which had intervened, 
could not be bullied, and the blustering talk of this retired 
sea captain, though he spoke as the envoy of the British 
Empire, carried little terror to the heart of the average 
Texan. 

On ]May 5th, a few days after Elliot's return. President 
Jones issued a call for a general convention of the peo- 



248 



Captain Elliot In Mexico 

pie of Texas at Austin on the fourth of the following July, 
''to consider the overture of the United States." 

President Jones was abused and driven out of public 
life for what the people of Texas always believed to be his 
attitude towards annexation, and his willingness to form 
an alliance with England and ]\Iexieo against the United 
States. 

But it must be remembered that he had seen the United 
States turn bitterly on Texas in 1837. He had witnessed 
ttie fate of the Tyler treaty in 1844, a treaty wdiich the 
Washington Government had sought and urged the people 
of Texas to make. No man foresaw just what w^ould happen 
in the United States even as late as ]\Iay and June, 1845. 
In January of that year James Reilly, sometimes our rep- 
resentative at Washington, wrote Jones: "Annexation is 
very much like the Millerite doctrine of the end of the 
world. It may be today, it may be next session, it may 
not be until the saints of this generation are all dead." 
Houston had said to Jones, shortly before the latter became 
President, that in dealing with this question the Texas Gov- 
ernment ''Should be wise as lynxes and as sly as foxes." 

Now Doctor Anson Jones, though a good man and a true 
patriot, was not an artist in the lynx-fox game. He lacked 
the training and much of the great ability of the old Chero- 
kee Chief, and in all this dilemma he was trying to play 
Houston without Houston's ability or experience. He was 
not at home in a game of duplicity and diplomacy. 

It was with a degree of pride and a consciousness of hav- 
ing done Texas a great service that President Jones made 
public announcement of the Mexican treaty in IMay. Here 
he gave his people the choice to remain an independent 
nation with high guaranties of territorial integrity, or to 



249 



The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annejcation 

become associated with the Union. They were no longer 
driven to join the United States for peace and protection. 

But the news, instead of being received in this spirit, 
roused a storm all over Texas which would have overthrown 
his Government were it not for the fact that he had con- 
vened Congress to meet within less than thirty days. 

The Last Act of the Great Drama of Annexation. 

The Ninth Congress of the Republic of Texas met in ex- 
traordinary session at Washington on the Brazos on the 
16th day of June, 1845, to consider the matter of annexa- 
tion. 

In his message President Jones laid before Congress the 
American proposition of annexation, and also the proposed 
Mexican treaty. The sentiment of the people of Texas will 
be well explained by the fact that annexation was accepted 
by the unanimous vote of both houses of Congress, and that 
the Mexican treaty was unanimously rejected. These 
things so promptly done. Congress gave sanction to Presi- 
dent Jones' convention called to meet at Austin on the 4th 
of the following July, for it was necessary for the people of 
Texas to form a State constitution and set up a State Gov- 
ernment. 

The Extraordinary Session of the Ninth Congress of Tex- 
as adjourned after a short but harmonious session, leaving 
the further details to the July convention. In the interim 
news came of the death of Ex-President Jackson at his home, 
the Hermitage. He had played a powerful part in the 
history of Texas, as well as that of the United States. His 
anxiety to acquire Texas, dating back to his first adminis- 
tration in 1829, and his life-long intimacy with Houston, 
have given color to rumors which will ever prevail that he 



250 



The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation 

had a secret understanding with Houston -which aided to 
bring on the Revolution of 1836. His passion for annexa- 
tion was intensified after his retirement by the discovery 
of British intrigues, for among the many ruling passions 
of his long life was his deep hatred for England. He was 
of Scotch ancestry, and during the American Revolution, 
when yet a mere lad, a British officer struck him a cruel 
blow for refusing to shine the officer's boots, and he carried 
a scar into international history. 

Houston lived twenty years longer. Houston's and Jack- 
son's names will exer be linked in the interesting drama 
which resulted in the acquisition of the great Southwest. 
Not long ago I chanced upon an old volume of Claiborne's 
History of Mississippi, published more than fifty years ago, 
and written by a contemporary of Jackson and Houston 
and the Southern leaders of their day. Among them was 
the celebrated William M. Gwin of Mississippi, who, after 
a career in Southern political life, went to California about 
1849 and became one of the first United States Senators 
from that State. 

Claiborne says in a sketch of Gwin that there was an un- 
derstanding between Houston and Jackson and Rusk, ne- 
gotiated by Gwin, and he dramatically declares, * ' I violate 
no confidence in saying there was such an understanding. 
The grave has now closed over all of these men save Sen- 
ator Gwin, who still lives in his old age in California, and 
who could verify what I say." Interested by this bold 
statement from a seemingly authentic source, I wrote to 
the Leland Stanford University of California to know if 
the private papers of Senator Gwin had been preserved and 
if they bore any reference to these affairs. The librarian 
replied that Gwin's unpublished memoirs lay among the 
archives of that institution, and in them he found a state- 



251 



The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation 

ment in Gwin's handwriting that in 1835 he had spent some 
time at the Hermitage with President Jackson, who was on 
a visit to Tennessee, and that shortly afterwards he went to 
Nacogdoches in Texas and spent several weeks with Hous- 
ton and Rusk. No other details are given, but we know 
that Mr. Gwin, for himself and associates, purchased large 
tracts of land in Texas on the occasion of this visit. What 
happened at these conferences at the Hermitage and old 
Nacogdoches one hundred years ago the world will never 
know. The whole scene furnishes the shrouded details of 
one of the most dramatic chapters in all our history. 

The July convention ratified annexation with but one 
vote against it, and that was cast by Richard Bac^he, of 
Galveston, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin. This conven- 
tion formulated our constitution of 1845, which was submit- 
ted to the people of Texas in November, at which time it was 
ratified and at an election held in December, J. Pinckney 
Henderson was elected Governor. 

The Constitution was then presented through President 
Polk to the American Congress, and in December, 1845, it 
formally admitted Texas into the Union. 

Even after Texas had accepted the last proposal and 
formed a State Government, and presented its State 
constitution to the American Congress for ratification, 
there was an effort made in the United States to with- 
draw the offer and leave Texas with its Federal Govern- 
ment dismantled and statehood rejected. Such a result 
would have found it disorganized at home and friendless 
abroad, with ^lexico's whole force marshaled on its borders, 
the very force which was hurled against the armies of the 
United States in the war which followed in a few months. 
The infamy of such course, breaking the faith of the 
Government of the United States with such awful con- 



252 



The Last Act in the Great Dr-\ma of Annexation 

sequences to Texas, is almost unbelievable to this gen- 
eration, but, thoug'h sad, it is true that Horace Greeley 
advocated it in the New York Tribune. And when the 
American Congress met in December, 1845, before whom 
the details of formal admission must come, memorials 
and petitions by the thousand were pouring in from 
Northern and Eastern States urging that Texas be not ad- 
mitted. The Legislatures of Massachusetts and two other 
New England States joined in this demand, and John 
Quincy Adams led a fight for its rejection in the House, 
and even the great Webster voted against the measure 
when it passed the Senate in December, and he was 
joined in this vote by thirteen Senators. 

On the 16th of February, 1846, the first Legislature of 
the State of Texas met at Austin, and President Jones for- 
mall}' closed the affairs of the Kepublic and surrendered his 
office to Governor Llenderson. The Republic was born at 
Washington on the Brazos on IMarch 2nd, 1836, and the 
span of its life was but two weeks less than ten years. 

The annexation resolution passed by the American Con- 
gress, under which Texas was admitted, provided: FiJ'sl: 
The State to be admitted subject to the adjustment by this 
Government of all questions of boundary that may arise 
with other Governments, and the constitution to be formed 
by Texas to be transmitted to the President of the United 
States to l)e presented to Congress on or before January 1, 
1846. Second: Said State, when admitted to the Union, 
after ceding to the United States all public edifices, fortifi- 
cations, barracks, forts, harbors, navy and ship yards, etc., 
and all other means pertaining to the public defense belong- 
ing to said Republic, shall retain all the vacant lands lying 
within its limits to be applied to the payment of its debts. 
But in no event are said debts to become a charge upon the 



253 



The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation 

Government of the United States. Third: New States of 
convenient size not exceeding four in number in addition 
to said State of Texas and having sufficient population may- 
hereafter by consent of said State be formed out of the ter- 
ritory thereof which shall be entitled to admission under 
tEe provisions of the Federal Constitution. Such States 
as may be formed out of the territory Ij'ing south of 36 de- 
grees and 30 degrees, known as the IMissouri Compromise 
Line, shall be admitted into the Union, with or without 
slavery, as the people ma}^ desire. And in such States as 
maj^ be formed out of said territory north of the Missouri 
Compromise Line, slavery shall be prohibited. 

The boundaries between Texas and Mexico had never 
been fixed. The Republic had always claimed to the 
Rio Grande, and Santa Anna in his negotiations while 
a prisoner with us had agreed upon the Rio Grande as 
the boundary. If you Avill look at the map you wall 
see that the Rio Grande rises in Colorado and flows 
south and east through New Mexico, leaving about half 
of the latter State to the east. The State of Texas 
claimed all of this territory, and it became the basis of a very 
bitter controversy between the State and Federal Govern- 
ments during the Taylor administration in 1850. As a part 
of the celebrated compromise measures in 1850, the present 
northern and w^estern boundaries were agreed upon, Texas- 
surrendering all claims to New IMexico, but receiving for 
this concession ten million dollars, which was used to 
liquidate the debts of the Republic. 

The annexation of Texas, accomplished in February, 1846, 
brought on a war with ^Mexico which began in the following 
April. The direct result of the war was the acquisition of 
all the countr}^ west of Texas to the Pacific. 



254 



The Last Act In the Great Drama of Annexation 

The war with Mexico was not regarded with favor in the 
North and East, where the abolition leaders saw in it a 
scheme to extend slave territory. The poet Whittier, hear- 
ing of the terms of peace which the Polk administration 
would impose on IMexico, and that they would take the 
country west to the ocean, wrote a note of sympathy to the 
Mexican people, warning them that the invader was com- 



insr: 



''Let the Sacramento herdsmen heed 

what sound the wind brings down, 
Of footsteps on the crisping snow, 

from cold Nevada 's crown, 
Full hot and fast the Saxon rides, 

with rein of travel slack, 
And bending o'er his saddle leaves 

the sunrise at his back. ' ' 

Even so the Saxon came and snatched the great South- 
west from the doom of eternal anarchy which has pre- 
vailed south of the Rio Grande for these one hundred 
years. 



255 




MISS ROBERTA JOHN 

Great Grand Daughter of General Houston at the grave of 

Santa Anna, City of Mexico 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGE 

The Louisiana Purchase 7 

The Proclamation of LaSalle 7 

Napoleon's First Effort at Kint? Making 10 

The Deal Is Closed 12 

Texas Traded for Florida 17 

The Colonies 27 

First Colonial Grant to Moses Austin 27 

The Last of the Viceroys.. 29 

Stephen Fuller Austin, the First and Greatest 

Empresario 31 

San Antonio — One Hundred Years Ago 33 

Austin in San Antonio..., 35 

Austin Explores the Gulf Littoral 37 

Austin Return to the States 39 

The New Years Creek Colony 40 

The Schooner ' ' Lively ' ' , 41 

Austin Goes to Mexico 44 

The Emperor Iturbede 47 

The End of the Empire 50 

Austin's Grant Confirmed 52 

The Terms of the First Grant 55 

Austin's Great Achievement 58 

The First Colonists 62 

The Government of the First Colony 65 

Empresario Grants 69 

The Fredonians 71 

The Fredonian Rebellion 74 

The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion 77 

General Manuel Mier y Teran 81 

General Teran 's Garrisons 84 

Bradburn at Anahuac 87 

The Battle of Velasco 89 

Mejia's Fleet 92 

The Revolution 97 

Antonio de Santa Anna 97 

The First Texas Convention of October, 1832 100 



PAGE 

The Convention of 1833 103 

Austin's Second Journey to Mexico, in May, 1833 106 

Austin in Prison 108 

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-four 112 

The Land Scandals of 1835.'. 115 

Gonzales 119 

The Consultation 122 

The Siege of Bexar 126 

IBen Milam and the Fall of Bexar 129 

Sam Houston 133 

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six 138 

The Convention of March, 1836 142 

The Alamo 145 

Goliad 149 

The Runawa^^ Scrape 153 

San Jacinto 158 

The Republic 169 

The Republic of Texas 169 

The Recognition of Texas 172 

Passing of Austin 179 

The Army of the Republic 181 

The Capitals of Texas 187 

Austin Located at Waterloo 189 

The Coming of the Cherokees 193 

The Passing of the Cherokees 197 

The Prairie Indians 200 

The Santa Fe Expedition 205 

Houston's Second Administration 209 

Annexation of Texas 215 

First Efforts at Re-Annexation 216 

Texas Rejected in 1837 219 

President Tyler Discovers Texas 223 

Tyler's Treaty 226 

The Fall of Van Buren 230 

Tyler's Triumph _ 234 

The Activity of England 238 

Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos 241 

Captain Elliot in Mexico 245 

The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation 250 



H147 74 J 



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